Stargate: Birth of the Federation
by Nairda
Summary: With the Asgard and Ancient repository of knowledge, humanity stands ready for a new birth.  "It tells the story of the newly created Terran Federation from a Macroscale point of view. Federation expansion, Space battles and the like."
1. Chapter 1

Stargate: Birth of the Federation

Author's Note: This story changes the canon Stargate time line since 2009; I will try to take into account new canon events especially from Stargate universe, but the new time line will be given priority.

**Prologue**

**RS27, Terran Federation**

**Research Station # 27**

**Operations Center**

**January 18, 2010**

"Report!" said Captain George Giffen entering the small Command and Control center of the newly built research station 27, which was task in performing a full planetary analysis before a decision was made in colonizing the planet.

"Sir, one contact just enter sensor range and is heading towards us, E.T.A. Two hours and 44 minutes" said the sensor officer on duty.

"I.D.?" said Captain Giffen showing a concerned face, and getting near the big LCD sensor screens.

"Not enough resolution yet sir, but its approaching at three point sixty five light years per hour, that's the maximum speed of a Ha'tak class vessel, my guess its one of them; either Jaffa, Tok'ra or Lucian Alliance," said the sensor officer watching the screen in which a small dot could be seen with its present course and speed displayed alongside, just inside a big sphere representing the 10 ly maximum range of the station's sensors.

"COM, open a channel," said Captain Giffen

"Channel opened," said the communications officer

"Unidentified vessel, you are entering Terran Federation Space please identify yourself." the Captain said with slight tension in his voice.

"No response, Sir." said the communications officer

"Well we can guess who they are then," said Captain Giffen opening transmission again "Lucian Alliance vessel, you are in violation of Terran Federation space, retreat immediately." said the Captain closing transmission and turning to the com station "Com?"

"No response again, but they are receiving, Sir." said the communication officer verifying that the subspace signal was indeed being received by the contact's subspace signal receivers, when the packet integrity algorithms returned RS27's signal back for confirmation, this told them that the unknown vessel's crew at least was hearing what they where saying.

"Dammit, ….send a T5 to command," said Captain Giffen to the com officer, opening transmission again "Lucian Alliance vessel, this is your last warning, retreat immediately or you will be considered a threat and be dealt with accordingly,"

"No response again Sir; sending level five threat recognition signal to command," said the communication officer pressing the T5 button of his communications console, a simple signal that indicated that the station was facing a hostile threat that it could not engage alone.

"Good. Tactical set condition red, charge shield's and weapon's capacitors, and energize shield grid with direct feed, lets leave the capacitors as backup for now, and order all personal ready for immediate evac," said Captain Giffen

"Sir, all three Naquada Reactors at full power and supplying 12 Peta Watts, capacitors charge in 25 seconds, and shield grid will be fully energize to 300 Peta Joules max capacity in four and a half minutes,"

It was normal to charge the shields directly from the capacitors, because it only took 25 seconds to charge them to maximum and then use that energy to fully energize the shield grid and use the power output of the reactors to keep it up, but because they still have time for the unknown vessel to arrive, it was better to charge the capacitors, and then direct energy from the reactors to the shield grid matrix, it took more time to charge because all the energy being directed to the grid needed 1/25 of it to keep up, so the higher percentage in capacity the more energy used to maintain the grid, but at least they will have the capacitors as backup.

"… Evacuation command received by all personnel and expected ready with removable data cores in 7 minutes," said the tactical officer.

"Great, now let's hope command can send a vessel fast enough", said Captain Giffen a little worried, he knew that the Federation's ships were far faster than a Ha'tak, and that if sent they'd arrive in no time, but he couldn't foresee if any were available, and he also knew that if his station had to face the situation alone, it would not stand for more than 15 second to the firepower of a Lucian Alliance mother ship.

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Atlantis City Ship, Federation Capitol**

**Command and Control**

**1 minute later**

Admiral Hans Voss, an ex German military General, who was given the rank of Admiral in the newly instituted ranking system of the Terran Federation Space Force, was sitting in his command chair looking at the massive holographic representation of the Milky Way Galaxy in the middle of the circular room situated in one of the towers adjacent to the main spire. There were blue dots representing the nearly 400 star systems that currently had some kind of Terran Federation presence.

In 328 the only presence were replicated reconnaissance satellites, that were deployed through a stargate and reached orbit via antigravity repulsors, with a very small Naquada reactor as their power source, were scanning the planets they were orbiting to verify if they were colonizable, another 41 systems had a research station, manned by 250 people, this prefabricated modular bases were sent disassembled through a stargate and assembled on site without the need of heavy machinery, they were performing an in depth analysis of the planet they were assigned to, with the purpose of guaranteeing that no unpleasant surprises came to the next wave of colonization.

"Eighteen days, just eighteen days and we already have forty one research stations out there Admiral, I really think that we are going to fast on this one, we are sending a new one every ten and a half hours." said Dr. Beth Brown

The Admiral turned to see the young astrophysicist, "Well Beth, it all depends on the point of view."

"Oh, come on Admiral, not even you believe that, last week we had half of those dots up there." said the Dr. pointing to the hologram.

"Actually it's quite easy, all those satellites can be replicated in hours, the same for all the equipment on the research stations, not even manning them is a problem, this is a global effort, the real problem is the stargate, at full capacity we will be able to maintain around seven hundred of them and…"

Suddenly, one of the farthest of the blue dots turned red, and started blinking.

"Sir we are receiving a T5 from RS27," said the communications officer

Admiral Voss turned and started walking to the com station addressing the officer in charge "If they are sending a T5, they are either facing a Lucian Ha'tak or something worst, let's hope the first, get me the Musashi,"

Immediately the officer gave a mental command to the ancient consol activating communication with the upgraded Daedalus class in orbit "Channel opened," he said

The image of Captain Tameichi Hara a former Japanese officer in command of an Atago class destroyer of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, appeared in one of the main screens of the command center "Captain, we have a situation, we just received a T5 from Research Station 27, we're dispatching you to assist," said Admiral Voss

"Yes Admiral, is there any lead on the forces involved?" answer Captain Hara with a distinct Japanese accent.

"Not yet, but we should receive sensor telemetry from RS27 in a few seconds, you should depart immediately, if the situation is more than you can handle, we'll order the evacuation and self destruct of the station, and a signal for you to return, Captain if it's a single Lucian ship you know what to do, god speed and good hunting, command out," said Admiral Voss

"Roger that, Musashi out," said Captain Hara disappearing from the main screen, and replaced by the image of the TFS-08 Musashi, almost immediately the main engines glowed bright yellow, propelling the ship out of Earth gravity well.

"Sir, the Musashi is leaving orbit," a few seconds later a hyperspace vortex opened. "… Its entering hyperspace, it's gone," said the sensor officer

"What's their ETA?" asked Admiral Voss

"RS27 is at 7254 light years from Earth, and at the Musashi's maximum speed, it will arrive in 14 minutes, Sir" said the sensor officer.

The new upgraded Daedalus, while already replaced in production by the replicated Achilles class, had almost the same systems as the standard one, but replacing the missile tubes with an Asgard neutrino ion generator (called a Gravimetric Enhanced Naquadria S Fusion Reactor or GENFR by the humans) increasing power output from 32 to 232 PW, an ancient drone firing mechanism with its corresponding magazine, a secondary bridge and Asgard cloaking, giving the upgraded model nearly 3.5 times faster hyperspace speed, and a formidable offensive weapon.

"Com, send RS27 a message with the Musashi's ETA, do you have telemetry yet?" said Admiral Voss

"Yes Sir, I sent it to tactical," Said the communications officer

"Well?" said Admiral Voss

"Its a single contact, speed three point sixty five light years per hour, probable Ha'tak class, RS27 should have sensor resolution for ID in a little more than an hour, but it is not responding to attempted hails, so we can infer Lucian Alliance, Sir" said the tactical officer

"Send that info to the Musashi, they should arrive well before RS27 has ID confirmation, and tell the Captain that he has command authority of the operation," said Admiral Voss

**Hyperspace**

**TFS-08 Musashi – Upgraded Daedalus class**

**Bridge**

**518 light years from RS27**

"Helm, give us a 45 degree approach to the contact in relation to RS27´s sensor line of sight, I want to be sure there are no other ships hidden in the shadow of the first one," said Captain Hara, "Tactical, engage cloak and mask our sensor profile to background radiation, Full sensor stealth mode".

"Approaching at 45 degree angle, will be in sensor range in less than a minute," said Helm

"Engaging cloak and sensors on stealth mode, Sir," said Tactical

The Musashi was streaming through hyperspace at 8.63 ly/s, the maximum design speed of its hyperdrive, which could only be maxed out with its new reactor or with a ZPM, and in a fraction of a minute, was entering sensor range of the unknown contact.

"Sir, we are at 42 ly from the target, its entering sensor range; Sir confirmed one target, Ha'tak class vessel, Bearing 0 mark 0, Heading 127 mark 192, directly towards RS27" said Tactical

"Good… Helm, approach to sensor visual resolution and match target speed, let see if we can find some markings," said Captain Hara "then proceed to RS27 and enter normal space behind the planet, we are cloaked but they can still detect our hyperspace window,"

"Aye, Aye Sir," said the helm officer, a few seconds later the Musashi transition to normal space behind the planet, away from the Ha'tak's line of sight "Entering system."

"Tactical, anything?" said the Captain

"No Sir, no markings it could be anyone," said Tactical

"Helm, get us into geostationary orbit above the research station," said Captain Hara pressing his intercom to the Flag Bridge "Commander Mehta please respond!"

Commander Deepak Mehta former Lieutenant Colonel of the Indian Army, was the XO of the Musashi, and was currently in the Flag Bridge (Battle Bridge when in combat situations), because protocol dictated it to be operational when in tactical alerts.

"Mehta here, what can I do for you Captain," said the Commander

"You are aware of our situation?" said Hara

"Yes Captain, but I strongly believe they are Lucian alliance, and if not, we can still consider them hostile, because they are not answering RS27's hails," said Deepak

"Yes, I am thinking on the same lines, but we will be unable to initiate the operation unless we are attacked," said the Captain

"RS27 will be at risk Captain, its shields are not powerful enough to withstand a full attack from a Ha'tak," said Commander Mehta

"Yes that worries me, but the political implication if we are mistaken could be worse, we don't know if it's a malfunctioning com system, or if the crew is in trouble and in autopilot, even if those possibilities are pretty low, we shouldn't take the risk… We'll have to change some things, evacuate RS27, and position the ship between the Ha'tak and the Station,"

"I agree Captain, and we could also use RS27 security personnel to reinforce our assault team if things go wrong," said Mehta

"Let's hope they don't, I'll get in contact with Captain Giffen and we'll be joining you soon in the Flag Bridge, and inform Lieutenant Commander Stoletov to join us, bridge out," said Captain Hara

"Yes Captain, Mehta out,"

The Musashi advanced under cloak, to position itself on top of Research Station 27, once there the sublight drives shut down, erasing the low humming heard on the bridge.

"Sir, orbit secure," said the helm officer

"Com, open a channel with RS27, encrypted tight beam transmission," said Captain Hara

"Channel opened," said Com

"On screen," the image of Captain Giffen appeared on the main screen a few seconds later "Captain Giffen, good to see you,"

"Like wise Captain, our satellites detected your hyperspace window opening, is there a reason you are under cloak?" said Captain Giffen

"Yes commander, as a matter of fact that is one of the reasons I'm calling, I may need to borrow some of your people, specifically your security personal,"

"Security personnel? Is there a reason Captain?" answer Giffen

"Yes, we are going to capture the Ha'tak, that…" said Captain Hara being cut off by an upset looking Captain Giffen

"Captain, my people are not commandos, I will not …" said Captain Giffen being cut off by Captain Hara returning the favor

"Calm down Captain, if every thing goes well your people will only have visited orbit, I will like you to come first, so that I can explain the operation at hand, and at the same time I will send a group down there to prepare your teams in case we need them," said Captain Hara

"Mmm, Ok Captain, lets see what you got first, I am ready to beam up," said Captain Giffen

**RS27 Orbit, Terran Federation**

**TFS-08 Musashi – Upgraded Daedalus class**

**Flag Bridge**

**10 minutes later**

Captain Hara, Captain Giffen and Commander Mehta, were watching as Lieutenant Commander Stoletov a former Russian Spetsnaz in charge of the Musashi's Special Forces was explaining the operation to them. He was standing besides the main Flag Bridge screen, in which was being displayed the schematics of a Ha'tak class mother ship, a ship that was produced by the Goa'uld, but inherited by the Tok'ra, Jaffa and Lucian Alliance when the formers were defeated.

"As you all know, this is a Ha'tak class vessel, it is the standard capital ship of the Tok'ra, Jaffa, and Lucian Alliance fleets, while there are some internal variations to the class, the overall schematics are the same for all ships," said Lt. Commander Stoletov, "While the combat specifications can be better explained by Commander Mehta or Captain Hara, my concern is on the internal distribution of the ship, there are several key locations that we need to control in order to achieve a successful mission, First the Bridge,"

The main screen zooms to a location in the center of the vessel where the pel'tak or bridge of the Ha'tak was located

"The bridge controls the vessel's main systems, self destruct, weapons, hyper drives and sublight engines, if we take it out, they will be unable to move, retreat to hyperspace or fire weapons, and we'll control one of the self destruct locations, next the Reactor room," The screen now changed to the lower levels of the ship were the main Reactor was located, "Once we take the bridge, the only other location were the crew could destroy their vessel is the Reactor Room, they could create a feed back loop that will end with any intention we have on capturing the vessel." said Lt. Commander Stoletov

The screen now changed a few levels down the main bridge, "... and this is our main objective, the main computer room, were all data crystals containing the information we're seeking is stored, Commander Mehta, will you explain the first part of the operation?"

The Commander stood up and approached the main screen while the Lt. Commander took a sit. "The First Phase involves knocking the Ha'tak's shields out in order to be able to beam the assault team to their objectives, the vessel is equipped with a 1.25 EJ single matrix non adaptive shield system and a 50 PW recharge rate, it's frequency modulation is fixed and while its difficult to detect with sensors our Asgard beams are adaptive, that means that once they hit the shield, they immediately adapt to it's frequency and bypass it completely," said Commander Mehta "Our beams have a 100 PW power output, that once they adapt will hit the structure and will most likely completely destroy the vessel, for this they are out of the equation, because in order to take the shield out we will need to hit the main shield emitters power distribution nodes, which are inside of the structure," A simulation demonstrating the results appeared on the main screen, showing the Ha'tak being hit by the beams which bypass it from side to side causing the destruction of the vessel.

"Our point defense rail guns, will not be able to penetrate those shields no matter how much we fire, their recharge rate is far to strong for them, so that lives us the drone weapons," said the Commander "The drones can be charge accordingly to their needs, while a fully charge one has a total of 5 PJ which is more than enough to destroy a Ha'tak, they can be fired with the required energy to accomplish the task, we need them to phase out to be able to bypass the shield and armor, and phase in again to hit the power distribution nodes with sufficient force to knock them out, but no to much as to destroy the vessel,"

"What about the shields that are already charged, even if you destroy the nodes the energy already in the shield matrix will take several seconds to dissipate," said Captain Giffen, "As you all know the shields on all Research Stations have the same technology as that of a Ha'tak, so I know their capabilities pretty well,"

"Yes Captain, I was going in to that," said Commander Mehta

"Sorry Commander, Please continue," said Giffen

"Once we hit the distribution nodes with drone weapons, the remaining energy in the shield grid will be drain in less than 30 seconds, in order to attain the maximum surprise, we should beam the assault teams immediately, so we are going to fire two beam weapons in non adaptive mode in an angle that does not compromise the Ha'tak structural integrity, in case the shields comes down faster than anticipated, combining the normal dissipation and the hit from the two beams, we expect the shield to come down completely in 5 seconds max.," said Commander Mehta

"What will happened if the Ha'tak fires into the station regardless if it is being attacked," said Captain Giffen

"Well, we intend to position ourselves between the station and the vessel, that should absorb most of the fire, and any fire bypassing us could easily be absorbed by the stations shields," said Commander Mehta

"Wouldn't it be better to target their weapons with drones also?" said Captain Giffen

"Not if we want to capture it Sir, while the shields of the Ha'tak are similar to that of our Research Stations their weapons are not; We use our reactor's power output both to feed our shields and weapons, the Ha'tak uses it's reactor power for hyperspace travel, sublight engines and shields, but their weapons are powered by liquid Naquada, if we hit one with our drones we risk blowing the ship up, at least a good chunk of it, We just can't risk it," said Commander Mehta "Lt. Commander please continue with Phase two,"

Stoletov stood up and walk to the main screen, as Commander Mehta sited down.

"Thanks Commander," said Stoletov, "Phase two begins as soon as the shields are down, by beaming three assault teams into the bridge and reactor and computer rooms, a total of 12 people will perform this task, and we'll maintain a fourth team as backup in case one of the groups faces strong opposition, in all 16 special forces personnel will be involved, if the situation gets out of hand, we intend to beam RS27 security personnel into the secured areas, while re beaming special forces to the hot zones; once the data crystals are secured we will beam them out and we'll proceed to secure the vessel," said Lt. Commander Stoletov

"Well Captain what do you think," said Captain Hara

"It's risky, but I have to agree that it's well planned, and you really think that you can crack the Lucian Alliance with this," said Captain Giffen

"It all depends on the information we retrieve, but if we get hold of their nav computer, we could have access to every Lucian Alliance base of operations, and fleet yards, that will allow us to make surgical strikes in to their territory, and end their piracy activity once and for all," said Captain Hara "Now we have to wait for the Ha'tak to arrives."

**Meanwhile...**

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Atlantis City Ship, Federation Capitol**

**Science and Technology conference room**

"Hello everyone, welcome to Atlantis, I'm Dr. Rodney McKay, I'm Head of the Terran Federation Science and Technology Department, and you are all here well… simply because you are the best in your specific areas of expertise," said Rodney to the nearly 100 new Egg heads (with a capital "E") recruits of the Science and Technology Department. "I know all of you had been given the normal fast intro into how we came to have an Ancient city ship, the Ancient and Asgard repository of knowledge, of hostile and friendly aliens and etc. etc. etc; but little had been said about the goals of the Terran Federation and what it is doing with all the acquire technology,"

"First, you all know the official reason as to why the Terran Federation is composed of a little more than a quarter of a million people instead of the billions currently on this planet," said Rodney as one of the Doctors raised her hand. "Yes,"

"Sorry Dr. Official reason? Do you mean? It's a slow learning process, we have our scientist on it, we this and we that, sorry Dr. but I have seen technology on the introductory vids that could solve all the problems of this world in less than a year and…," said the Dr. interrupted by Rodney

"Wait, wait, I know what you have been shown and that is not even the tip of the iceberg, and I also know that your I.Q. is well above Official reasons, but there IS a reason as to why we have not release that technology to the world, and if you give me a little break here, I will gladly tell you," said Rodney slightly losing his temper, "When the stargate program got release to the public last year, we where a fragmented society, consisting of more than a hundred countries, with cities operating in a very fragile balance, any disruption to any of its integral elements and those cities functionality comes crumbling to a halt, the very reason as to Earth problems is exactly that lack of prevision and planning, and if you add the mistrust between different countries, and that they do what its best for the leaders personal agendas, well if we release the technology that we have, it will be like sentencing this planet to death, and that is without considering the leaking of technology to potentially hostile aliens,"

"So, a decision was made to prevent all of that, first the government, well it is simply impossible for all parties to decide what type of government to use, and many were not willing to change it in their territories because of that "fragile balance", so a compromise was reach in which we will use the government employed by the ancients and Asgard, they both use what we call a Federated Council Meritocracy, that means that their leaders are selected by their merits rather than their popularity as in a Democracy, they are also a council in which different members represent a different part of society, yes NO president, and are also a Federation in which the different territories are sovereign but also contribute with the others as a whole," said Rodney a little out of breath "That's the type of government that the Terran Federation employs,"

"Second, we have the problem of social stability, all of our problems reside mostly on lack of city planning, you all now what happens when there's a road block, traffic goes to hell, you scare the people that an economy crisis is looming, every ones pockets its money and… oh yeah an economic crisis, we have became so dependant on corrupt and badly planed systems that our economy and society are constantly on that "fragile balance", Again the ancients and the Asgard came to our rescue, and this city ship is a prime example of what I mean, a completely self sufficient city, every individual contributes a small amount of their time in manning it, and in response they have all of their basic needs covered, no worries about health care, housing, education, food, no worries at all, and after that they have time to devote themselves to their own desires," said Rodney keeping everybody paying attention.

"Third, we have the problem left to us by the Ancients and Asgard, their entire repository of knowledge," said Rodney while everybody started laughing "No really I mean it, a very big problem, that kind of technology on the wrong hands could be disastrous, we owe it to the people of earth, of this galaxy and the ones beyond not to allow something like the Goa'uld or the replicators to happen again,"

"That is why the Terran Federation was formed, to expand fast, expand strong, expand stable, and expand safely," said Rodney "What do I mean with that, well expand fast means get the people out of this planet as fast as we can, the more planets we have the more redundant we become, expand strong means with sufficient force to repel every attack directed on us, expand stable means with a self sufficient city centered society, and expand safely means that our most priced technology is on our most powerful worlds,"

"Well, this is exactly were you all come in, we are focusing our entire research to accomplish that. The first phase of our expansion is prospection, we seek out planets capable of sustaining life and we send reconnaissance satellites to determine that no intelligent life exists and that it is really capable of sustaining us," said Rodney and again another Doctor raised his hand

"Sorry doctor but how do you find those planets,"

"Well, at the moment we are using Atlantis Milky Way's stargate addresses, which number in the thousands, and send the satellites through those star gates, but as more ships became available we will start exploring the galaxy with ships sensors or even automated probes," said Rodney continuing with his speech, "After the reconnaissance satellites complete their jobs, we have the ground open for colonization and in order to expand fast we need to send people to as many planets as we are capable off, but that will weaken us, as those planets will not have enough population to repel a determine attack, and that not only puts our colonists at risk but also our technology,"

"In order to avoid that, the colonization process is being divided into 5 technological and population tiers," said McKay "Tier 1 being the one with the least population capacity as well as technological level, and tier 5 the most populated and more technologically advanced,"

"On colonization terms tier 1 is separated from the rest, in that it is not yet consider a colony, tier 1 planets will only have a research station manned by 250 people, but tier 2 to 5 planets will be colony worlds, that will range from 250,000 thousand to 8 billion people," said Rodney giving another doctor a chance to speak.

"Doctor I imagine that this is long term planning right? Because we don't have that amount of people, at least not here on Earth, are you considering people from other planets?" said another doctor

"Yes it's a long term plan, and no we are not considering people from other planets, at least nor yet," said Rodney "We only have Tier 1 to 3 designs ready, but only Tier 1 and 2 are deployed, we expect Tier 3 to star in one year, and to complete Tier 4 design in at least 10 years and Tier 5 design in 40 if we are lucky,"

"From Tier 2 onwards the distribution of cities per planets, their population capacity, and expected technological level is as follows, Tier 2 will have …," Rodney continue with explaining in detail all of the mentioned tiers.

**RS27 Orbit, Terran Federation**

**TFS-08 Musashi – Upgraded Daedalus class**

**Bridge**

**3 minutes to Ha'tak arrival**

"Ha'tak slowing for transition Captain," said the sensor officer

The Captain slowly nodded, "Report, all stations,"

"Shields at maximum and weapons capacitors fully charged, we are still under cloak," said the tactical officer

"Sensors operating at 100% efficiency, Sir," said the sensor officer

"Sub light engines powered up, and ready to engage," said the helm officer

"Transport beam on the green, Sir," said another officer

"Good," said Captain Hara, activating communications "Lt. Commander Stoletov, ready your teams for beam up, you will not receive another call," He knew that in the thick of battle the less amount of orders required the better; he always wanted his crew to respond immediately to commands in order to avoid lagging.

"Acknowledge Captain, all teams are ready for transport," answered Stoletov

A few moments later, a big hyperspace window tore through the fabrics of normal space, dropping a Ha'tak before closing itself up.

"Hyperspace window opening, bearing 010 mark 005, distance 22,000 km, well beyond RS27 weapons range," said the sensor officer "Ha'tak transition complete, Sir it's shields are down," It was normal for a vessel to travel through hyperspace with minimal shields only to protect from radiation, because almost all power was devoted to the hyperspace engines, but entering a system that you were expecting battle with shields down was another thing completely different.

"What?" said the Captain taking a little to understand his luck, he knew the Ha'tak didn't expect the Musashi, and that it was well beyond RS27 firing capabilities but it was still a lot of luck, "Beam the teams NOW," he barked "Now, now, now," he repeated leaving no room for confusion. While he required confirmation of hostilities in order to disable another ships shield to beam his teams, he didn't need that with an unshielded vessel, he will get his confirmation from the assault itself, and if the ship turns out to be non hostile, no harm would have been done.

A few seconds later, 12 figures disappeared in a blue flash from the Musashi.

"Sir, its launching fighters," said the sensor officer "plus two Al'kesh," Half a squadron of death gliders, three to each Al'kesh poured from the Ha'tak hangars and glided towards RS27 at maximum speed

"Transport report," said the Captain

"Sir, three teams transported safely to the Ha'tak," said the transporter officer

"Sir, we are being hailed by the assault team," said the communications officer

"So soon? Let's hear it," said the Captain "Lt. Commander report,"

"Sir, Bridge secure, my other teams report the same, we received very low opposition, the computer room team report no engagement, they have lock access and are in the process of removing the data crystals, the reactor room team, faced and stunned only one unarmed personnel, and we only faced two on the bridge the operator and the ships master, both are unconscious," said Stoletov "Oh, and Sir, they are Lucian Alliance,"

"Excellent work Lt. Commander, coordinate with Mehta for reinforcement, and secure the ship, be advise you may have fighters trying to return to their vessel, if that is so, raise your shields and fire a warning shot, we will deal with them, Bridge out," said Captain Hara

"Acknowledge Captain, assault team out" said Stoletov

"Tactical, disengage cloak and fire two drones, I want those Al'kesh disabled," said the Captain "and lock rail guns on the fighters"

The Musashi fired its first drones in battle, a weapon system that humanity was just able to replicate through the use of Asgard scanning and replicating technology.

The two little guided weapons flew out of their launch tubes in the dorsal area of the ship, and streaked towards the Al'keshes at their maximum speed, in less than a minute they covered the distance and phased through their shields and armor as if they didn't exist, hitting the sublight and hyperdrive distribution node, severing all power and leaving the two bombers coasting on inertia towards the planet.

"Both Al'kesh disabled Sir, but they are heading right to the planet, if we don't beam the out of there, they'll crash," said the Tactical officer

"Com, open a channel to those fighters and Al'keshes," said Hara

"Channel open, Sir"

"Lucian alliance pilots this is Captain Tameichi Hara from the Terran Federation Ship Musashi, your Mother ship had been captured, and both Al'kesh disabled, your only way out of here is gone, surrender yourselves immediately, Al'keshes lower your shields and fighters power down your engines, this is your only warning, Musashi out," said the Captain

"Sir two fighter have broken off the main group and are heading towards us," said the tactical officer

"Oh, what are we playing at, can we get a lock on their pilots," said Hara

"I believe so Captain," said the transport officer

"Transport them directly to one of the Ha'tak brigs and inform the assault team, and tactical take those unmanned fighter out of my space, and with force Lt., I want them to think that we don't care," said the Captain

"Yes Sir," said the Lt. manning tactical, soon a full burst of Rail gun fire shattered the two fighters leaving a pair of wings tumbling in different directions. "Both targets destroyed, Sir,"

"Sir one Al'kesh its droping its shields, the other one too," said the sensor officer

"Sir, they are hailing us, audio only," said the com officer

"No talking, transport them to the Ha'tak's brig, the same for those fighter pilots, we'll interrogate them later," said the Captain "... and plot a course for those Al'keshes and fighters, will tractor them to the Ha'tak,"

"Yes Sir," answered both the Helm and Transport officers

The Captain activated the internal com systems, "Commander Mehta, report,"

"Sir, the vessel is secured, we used our sensors and those of the Ha'tak to locate all Lucian alliance personnel, and they were all beamed to the brigs, in total we captured including the pilots and those in the Al'keshes 73 people, that ship was extremely undermanned Captain, we have a total of 16 special forces, and 7 RS27 security personnel on board the vessel, and we already have the data crystals here," said the Commander

"Excellent Commander, keep me informed, bridge out," said the Captain

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Atlantis city ship, Federation Capitol**

**Council meeting**

**3 hours later**

The meeting had been going on for nearly half an hour, in which important subjects to the handling of the Federation were being discussed, from simple status reports on different projects to strategically important decisions, one of them being discussed at that very moment.

"... and what do you propose Admiral, if the capture of that Ha'tak didn't provide new information on the whereabouts of their fleets and primary bases, we are back to square one," said one of the council members

"Beats me," said Admiral Jack O'Neill

"Ehh, Jaaack?" said Daniel Jackson with his usual verbal smack in the face

Jack turn to see his friend saying "What?" with his I´m innocent face, and when Daniel didn't flicker he added "OK," with his you didn't get the joke again face.

"Well councilor, we can't get to the Wraith in Pegasus which is a far smaller galaxy than this one, and they have far greater numbers, so you can now imagine the difficulty in finding the Lucians that have less ships and a greater area to hide," said Jack "What we do know is that both factions keep mobile, and that they are both dependent on food, we currently have three ships in Pegasus that are being given the heads up via subspace when a Wraith cruiser arrives for culling, and we where highly successful in intercepting them, but now they are sending cruisers to all planets at the same time and that guaranties that many planets will get culled, and with the Lucians, well we have no relations with planets that provide food, and that's because they protect them, we planned on capturing one of their vessels to download their nav records but that didn't help, well at least not much,"

"So what I propose with the Lucians, is to keep infiltration teams trying to gather as much information on their movements, we know that they don't have shipbuilding capabilities and that every ship they get is stolen, we also know that they lack trained personnel and their ships are highly undermanned, and we also know that our Early warning systems even in the small Research Stations are quite capable of detecting them with enough time to send a ship to intercept," said Jack adding "We are going to eliminate their threat slowly by attrition,"

"With the Wraith, there is not much we can do with three vessels, and our stop gap Achilles class replicator while providing us with one new vessel per week, We are still a long way of having sufficient ships to deal with them, not until our tier 3 cities became operational next year, that we are going to have sufficient production capabilities to threaten them. So, we just need to buy us some time for that to happened, and I recommend we send To'kra tunneling crystals, surplus Surface to Air missiles and infantry weapons, to our allies in Pegasus," said Jack

"With what end councilor," said another council member

"Councilor?" said Jack

"Jaaack!" said Daniel

"Oh, yes councilor, I'm also a councilor," murmured jack "Well, the To'kra crystals will allow our allies to dig themselves when culling approaches, and infantry weapons will allow them to protect their newly constructed tunnels to wraith infantry attack, and our SAMs will force the Wraith to pay a heavy price for any approaching dart, that will give more survivability to Pegasus citizens and more time for our ships to move from planet to planet clearing orbit of Wraith ships,"

"Orrr, we could make something completely different," added Rodney

Every body turned to see councilor Rodney McKay, which had been relatively quiet.

"What are you suggesting Rodney," said Daniel

"We'll I know you remember..., ehh well not you Daniel, you where ascended at the moment, but you Jack, you remember the time of the Prometheus hijack, when you were left stranded in deep space, and suddenly the Asgard appeared," said Rodney

"Yeah, I still have nightmares of replicators crawling up my ass. Your point," said Jack

"Well you all know, that active detection systems are completely dependent on power output, and in order to detect a ship hundreds of light years away you need a very powerful reactor, and at that moment no Asgard ship was present, Thor told you that they monitor Earth for ships entering Hyperspace, so I took a look into the Asgard computer core, and they used a satellite that only listens to the emissions of special subatomic particles that are generated when a hyperspace window is opened," said Rodney

"You do speak English?" said Jack

"Wait Jack, this is important, please continue Rodney," said Daniel

"Well this particles only travel through hyperspace so those satellites are deployed there, and they had one of them near every planet under the protected planets treaty, when a hyperspace window opens, those particles are detected by the satellites, and with three of them they can triangulate the position of every opening or closing, when they detected the opening on earth orbit, they dispatch Thor's ship, and the second opening gave Thor the exact location of the Prometheus," said Rodney

"Are you saying that we can do what the Allies made to the Germans U boats in WWII but on a Galactic scale," said Jack

"Yes," said Rodney

"Ahh, isn't that easier," said Jack turning to Daniel

"It doesn't gives us the location of their vessels but of their hyperspace openings, but that will tell us where the Wraith cruisers are returning, so that we can hunt their Hives, and where their ships are being grown when they jump to hyperspace the first time, in order to destroy those facilities, and the same thing on this Galaxy with the Lucians,"

"Excellent, I see your lessons with Carter are going splendidly" said Jack smiling "And when do you think you can have this detective satellites ready,"

"Eh, well you should proceed with your previous plans Jack, the SAMs and those things, because it may be a while, the detection system is quite easy actually but I still have to research their hyperspace anchor tech, I have no idea how they avoid those satellites drifting in hyperspace, but I'll get teams assign to it immediately."


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note:

-The last part of this chapter is the technical presentation of the Achilles class. If you are a McKay or a Carter read on, but if you are an O'Neill skip it and wait for the next chapter.

-Some O'Neills may say that the amount of drones in the Daedalus class or on the Achilles are way to much, but believe me everything I put on is checked and rechecked, and if you still don't believe it, well check the battle of Antarctica against Anubis on youtube. If you still don't, well I'm sorry.

-My beta reader just explained to me how many comas per sentence, and how many sentences per paragraph. But if I start correcting them on this chapter, it will be like rewriting it again. So I apologize, and I'll take that into account from the next chapter onwards.

**Chapter One**

**Pegasus Galaxy**

**M5V-801, Non aligned World**

**February 22, 2010**

A Wraith dart crumbled to the ground dying in a fiery explosion, through out the landscape multiple smoke trails could be seen jumping to the air behind the distinctive glow of a rocket engine, some of them flying harmlessly in to the range not able to lock on to its intended target, while others hit its mark increasing the carnage upon wraith dart ranks, the battle had just started, the culling had begun.

"No, no, no, I said low flying, slow moving and from behind, and wait for the green light and buzzer sound before you fire!" shouted ensign Mendoza, a Terran Federation Space Force advisor, to one of the locals who had just misfired an SA-7b portable surface to air missile.

"Sorry Mister Mendoza, it won't happen again."

"Hey you, you wanna get shot in the back!? About face!." Mendoza said to one of the other members of the local militia fire team, and then turned again to the first one, "Reload! More are coming!."

There were a total of 17 fire teams, one in the center of the settlement complex, and two concentric rings of 8 fire teams each at 500 and 1000 meters from the center respectively.

"Spread out and stay low. Launchers on staggered fire! I want constant fire, shoot, reload, wait your turn! Everyone else keep watch! Don't waste AK ammo on Darts, you'll just make yourself an easy target, but if you see drones approaching, give them hell." instructed Mendoza.

The first few Wraith darts that enter the perimeter where shot down by the fire teams, the Wraith never expecting such a welcome from old but still effective surface to air missiles soon broke formation and started focusing on this annoyance. Several fighters started strafing runs into the spread out defensive formations of the locals, suppressing fire from the targeted location only to be greeted by the interlocking fire from the other fire teams.

"Incoming Dart on Team 9, wait until it passes in front of us before you fire,"

The dart started it strafing run from northwest to southeast heading directly to the inner circle fire team protecting that location, only to receive full attention from the outer circle fire team 10 and Mendoza's 17. The launcher's trigger was slightly depress and soon the fighter in the reticle turned green and a buzzing sound was heard, the operator push the trigger further, and instantly the missile was launched, it headed directly to the dart only to pass a few meters behind in slightly different angle from the dart's vector.

"Number three, FIRE," ordered Mendoza

A second missile from position 10 followed the first one, closely followed by a third from Mendoza's fire team 17, both missed.

"Four, FIRE that junk!." shouted Mendoza now furious from the ineffectiveness of the soviet era surface to air missile.

A fourth from fire team 10 also missed, but the fifth missile from Mendoza's 17 hit its mark 500 m from its position just as the dart started pulling away from its strafing run. The detonation of the small warhead didn't destroy the dart but damaged it sufficiently to make it crash, no explosion was seen but it was heard, and the triumph shouts of the 17's erupted instantly.

"Good work, now concentrate and reload, that was one, and we may have hundreds incoming."

The anti air battle raged for nearly half an hour, in which the 17 fire teams launched a total of 340 missiles claiming 61 darts. But because only a handful of people where grabbed by the culling beams of the wraith fighters, the following waves started landing drones and the situation was starting to look grim for the surface groups. After expending all their missiles they had to retreat to the Tok'ra expanded underground tunnels left by genii mining operations. They were going there to wait for a Terran Federation space ship to clear orbit of Wraith vessels, and if not, then at least to give some payback to the drones that dare enter their heavily fortify positions.

Wraith stun pulses fizzled past Mendoza's team, while AK-47's in full automatic mode, returned bursts of 7.62mm rounds into the drone positions.

"Come on people, into the woods, layered defense as we practiced, go, go, go!." commanded Mendoza to his team.

Slowly and in good order, the local militia men equipped with AKs and Mendoza with a P-90 retreated into the woods, always with covering fire from at least two members while the others retreated and took position ahead to provide a second defensive location for the first team to retreat.

Mendoza always stayed with the covering team adding a third member to the group, and as he saw that the second position was secured, he pull the pin of a smoke grenade and threw it into the path of the approaching drones to help cover their retreat.

Let's go! Move move! Third line! Move move!"

The second group started taking pot shots to the drones that were trying to flank them, while the first ones reached their lines.

"Keep going! form a fourth line, not far from the entrance, go now now!."

After a few minutes of fighting in retreat, they reached one of the entrances to the underground tunnels, at the distance the Wraith darts could be seen heading in the direction of the Stargate.

"They're pulling out, we've won?." Said one of the entrance guards.

"Only the darts are retreating but we have a lot of drones heading our way, so stay sharp. We have to keep them busy as long as we can, better take them now before we blow the entrances." Answered Mendoza

"But why, lets go in and let them leave through the star gate or starve outside,"

"If they leave! if not!, you can stay inside for two weeks if you want to, but eventually your people will have to attend their crops or we'll all die from starvation, and the Wraith can handle that time without eating, and can also hibernate, so if we allow many of them to live, we'll have to deal with them later, and I am not to fond of fighting roving bands of hungry Wraith in the woods, they are perfect for ambush."

The resignation in the guards face said it all, they started taking positions outside of the mountain side entrance, 13 people in total, fire team 17 and the 4 guards.

"Pair up people, if your partner is stunned, take him inside the tunnels and beyond the demolition markings. Then you'll return to give the rest a hand, is that clear?," ordered Mendoza, while the others answered in the affirmative.

"If I'm hit, you'll do the same, but will start retreating inside and then blow the entrance..." just as he was finishing his speech, the first drones could be seen approaching, and some of the members started firing.

"Short controlled bursts, conserve your ammo!."

The fighting started, Wraith drones secured positions behind trees, shooting into the human fortifications to force them to cover, while more drones approach the entrance, some of them being hit by multiple round, but forcing the humans to pop out of their cover to avoid being over run only to be hit by stun rounds, in a few minutes 6 locals including the 4 guards had been stun, all of them having been moved inside the tunnels, but more than 20 drones lay motionless in the surrounding area, in the end it didn't matter as more drones stepped in to cover the losses.

"We can't hold this, start pulling back and arm the claymores." ordered Mendoza to the remaining members of his team, who immediately did as ordered. Soon the entire team was inside the cave almost in the demolition safe zone, when the blasts from the claymores were heard.

"Mister Mendoza, we are ready,"

"Good, let them come, lets draw them in, prepare to detonate on my mark."

The entrance tunnel run straight for nearly 20 meters before dropping 20 degrees and reaching a second tunnel 4 meters below the first one, which run strait as the first one for another 20 meters, at the end was a second fortification, and the location of the demolition detonators. When the first of the drones was seen entering the second tunnel, Mendoza gave the order, and the demolition charges detonated on the first tunnel, burying the unsuspecting drones in tonnes of rock and dirt, and the few ones that reach the second tunnel were drawn in bullets from Mendoza´s team.

Mendoza move his hand into his neck activating his com unit "This is team seventeen leader to command please respond,"

The voice of Lieutenant Commander Julie Dubois commanding officer of M5V-801 deployed Terran Federation Space Force personnel, filtered through his speaker "Seventeen one, this is Mike Five Victor Eight Zero One actual, go ahead."

"Ma'am, entrance demolished, position has been secured, orders?"

"Roger that, leave a unit to patrol those tunnel and fall back to central, command out."

**Pegasus Galaxy**

**Hyperspace**

**TFS-02 Daedalus – Upgraded Daedalus class**

**Flag Bridge**

**8 minutes earlier**

A few minutes earlier the Daedalus had destroyed two Wraith cruisers that were in the process of culling a planet, and after clearing orbit of hostiles it entered hyperspace and set a course to M5V-801.

"Commodore, we should pursue those retreating cruisers and take them out in hyperspace, if we move to another planet, they could turn around and start culling the one we just left, again." said Captain Pietro Yaccarini

"I don't think they will, but if they do its better for us. We can reach the next planet before they can turn back and we can cause more damage to their fleet that way, forcing them to reengage, and no I'm not risking ships battling in hyperspace it's to volatile." answered Commodore Steven Caldwell

"Well, they will force us to reengage too."

"Yes, but not fast enough, by the time they return, the majority of the Wraith Fleet will have already disengage, We have time to hit four maybe five planets per ship, thats twelve or fifteen out of more than a hundred being attack simultaneously, we just don't have the numbers, unless we start hitting their cruiser's cloning facilities or their Hive ships, this is an unwinnable situation and the fact that non of the engaging cruisers ever return to their building sites or get close to a Hive ship, means we can't follow them to primary targets."

The Commodore took a deep breath looking at the main screen, he could see more than a hundred dots in red, marking the location of planets being culled, He could also see the Apollo and the Odyssey, the first one also in hyperspace heading into its fourth planet, while the Odyssey was already engaging Wraith cruisers in its fourth one. He turned to see Captain Yaccarini.

"Are you prepared for this Captain?" he said with a joking smile on his face

"Well Sir, I think no one really is, but as long as we keep our guards up and keep training we should be ok."

"Good answer, have you been informed on your time here in Pegasus."

"The Alastor is supposed to be ready on the twenty fifth of February, the Captain of the Sun Tzu is being assigned to it, so I have to return via Midway Station by February twenty fourth, and as soon as the Sun Tzu is ready we'll be heading here, I expect to arrive at the end of February or beginning of March."

"Good, I hope that this few engagements gets the green out of you, because they keep taking my experienced Captains to man those new Achilles." Said Caldwell chuckling

"Well Commodore, I am dress in blue not green, so you can relax on that." answered Yaccarini chuckling

The internal com chimed.

"Commodore we are about to transition to normal space on M5V-801, We are proceeding with standard engagement of enemy forces." Said Captain Alfred Thompson commanding officer of the TFS-02 Daedalus.

"Go ahead Captain, take as many as you can before they disengage, but be ready for any surprises the Wraith may have under their sleeves, Flag bridge out."

"Acknowledge, Bridge out."

The Daedalus transitioned to normal space behind a moon to avoid detection, while it was cloaked, its hyperspace opening could be detected. It cruised around the moon and started acquiring passive data from its advance sensors. The Wraith had deployed their fleet in a similar manner as previous engagements, they had 4 ships directly above the culling area but separated enough as not to present a juicy target, and 3 other cruisers positioned in the line of site of the first ones but in a position to cover all hemispheres of the planet, so that they could detect any incoming hyperspace windows. They had learned that engaging a Daedalus class vessel was suicide, and that they couldn't detect them approaching due to their cloaks, so they were relying on window openings to order their retreat.

Also the approach to the main cruiser group was protected by darts, some of them had their culling beam storage removed and equipped with a fusion warhead, but the sensor profile was masked to avoid being targeted first, this last Wraith tactic had proved very effective, and had already forced the Apollo in previous engagements to retreat with damage, after hundreds of them made kamikaze runs into its shield almost overpowering it, only the fast reaction of its Captain saved the day.

The 387 PJ (nearly 92 MT) fusion warheads were not a threat to the 46.6 EJ strong shields of the Daedalus class, but more than a hundred were and looming in sight were nearly a thousand, the Wraith having nearly triple the amount of darts in every cruiser.

"Helm, approach the cruiser I'm marking now, after we destroy it, turn to starboard to engage this second one, after that, pull away." Captain Thompson order, entering the target data into his console.

"Tactical, as soon as we are in range, decloak the ship and fire plasma beams in to the first target, then recharge them and concentrate fire on the dart with rail guns and drones, don't let a single one get through, as soon as we are in range of the second one engage it, after that, cloak us again and reposition, lets hope we can approach a third in time before they disengage."

The Daedalus approached under cloak and crossed the distance between the moon and the planet in almost no time, it started to slow down and positioned itself for the attack run, slowly it entered the darts defensive perimeter, they were inside a cloud of darts when the order came.

"Ok People, we are going through this again, check your stations, any problems this is the time." Said the Captain suggesting a check up, he got pure green lights in his console. "Engage."

The Daedalus cloak disengaged, showing a distorted ship who's lines started to define, immediately the rail guns started firing, hitting and vaporizing nearby darts, and a few seconds later two light blue beams erupted from the forward guns, traveling the distance between the Daedalus and the Wraith cruiser instantly hitting it at its port side, first it seamed that nothing happened, but soon the two beams came from the other side of the ship obviating the damage incurred in its interior. The Daedalus made a hard turn to starboard, heading for the second cruiser, but the surprise was over.

All of the Wraith cruisers immediately turn about and headed away from the Terran vessel in different directions, the darts instead of heading for the Daedalus, turned in the direction the human ship was heading, but moving faster, they were positioning themselves like a funnel, forcing the Daedalus to do exactly what it wanted, but suddenly the Wraith cruiser turned to port, leaving behind it a massive wall of Wraith Darts, who at this time turned and headed directly into the path of the Daedalus.

"Oh shit, that could be a problem... Helm turn three five zero mark zero two five, and Tactical plow the road, I want every thing trying to reposition itself in front of us gone, and try to get that cruiser, I don't care the range." ordered the Captain.

The Daedalus turned 10 degrees to port and pitched up 25, putting the darts out of its heading vector, at the same time, 20 drones per second started leaving its dorsal launcher and heading straight ahead, speeding to shred the darts trying to reposition in front of the Human ship, while the main plasma beams fired again destroying some darts in its way but missing the cruiser completely, the Wraith vessel turn now to starboard, putting its escorts again in front of the Terran Vessel, but the Daedalus didn't relent and the plasma beams were kept at their maximum rate of fire, the first misses helped to triangulate the position of the Cruiser and one of the beams hit its right side tail from above but on an angle, piercing a huge length of internals and exiting through the starboard engine completely destroying it, the cruiser lost power and started to tumble, meanwhile the darts redouble their efforts forcing the Daedalus to disengage again, some even passing through its defenses and detonating on its shields.

"Four fusion detonations, shields at 92 percent, and Sir, we are running out rail gun rounds fast." said the tactical officer

The Daedalus was in its fourth engagement of the day and had been firing rail guns permanently in all four of them, the magazines were almost empty, and will leave the vessel relaying only on drones and shields as point defense.

"Just keep our distance from those darts, we will soon have more drones out there than they have fighters, hit them hard but let some rounds pass through to finish that cruiser." said the Captain

In the distance the first hyperspace windows started opening, taking away the remaining Wraith cruisers, while on the surface Mendoza's team reached the tunnel entrance and the darts started heading to the gate, in orbit the remaining darts were covering the wounded cruiser throwing themselves against the Daedalus in an attempt to overwhelm its point defenses, but after just a minute of combat more than 1200 drones had been launched and had caused devastation on the Wraith darts, the few remaining wraith fighters were being completely obliterated, and the drones that passed through were already hitting the damaged cruiser, phasing through its armor and detonating on weapons and hyper drive capacitors, forcing the ship into an internal micro nova, before the pressure and heat overpowered the structural integrity of the alien vessel completely destroying it.

"Wraith cruiser destroy, remaining alien fighters are heading for the gate." said the tactical officer

"Good, Helm do you have our next target?" asked captain Thompson

"Yes Sir, Commodore Caldwell filtered it from the flag bridge a few moments ago." answered the helm officer

"Ok, make a high speed low orbit pass before entering hyperspace, lets give tactical time to clear space of any remaining darts."

Less than a minute later, the few remaining darts had passed through the gate or had been hit by a drone, space above M5V-801 was clear and the Daedalus had just entered hyperspace.

"Lieutenant, now you can give me that magazines report." said the Captain

"Yes Sir." He started requesting the relevant data to his console before answering.

"We have fired a total of 35,711 rail gun rounds and have only 2,689 remaining, the ship's replicator is producing a new round every two seconds, and we'll fill up our magazines in almost 20 hours, the raw material we have on board is enough for nearly 3 hours of replicating." said the tactical officer

"We'll be near a planet to replenish them long before that, what about drones?"

"7971 launched, We still have 1,016,029 left."

The upgraded Daedalus class had replaced the missile tubes for several upgrades, including a 40 meter cube with 64,000 cubic meters in volume, and with 16 drones per cubic meter, the total magazine capacity was 1,024,000 drones, with a ZPM the rate of fire would had been enormous and would have drain the magazine in under a minute, but with only 232 PW and only 100 alloted for drone launching the Daedalus class was only able to fire 20 per second enough for 14 hours of continuous battle.

"More than enough. Ok let's prepare for our next date with our lovely insects." Said Captain Thompson to the crew.

The Daedalus, Odyssey and Apollo, had been able to engage the Wraith in five planets each, before they disengaged with their human food supplies, the Apollo had been able to follow a cruiser to one of their delivering areas which consisted of a stargate positioned in deep space, where they send their packages via darts to their Hive ships, three Wraith cruisers died this way give a total of 34 Wraith vessels destroyed in the operation and more than 8,000 darts, losses that could be replaced by the Wraith in a little more than two weeks. The whole effort of slowing them while they culled, using Surface to Air missiles, Tok'ra tunneling crystals, only meant 5 more cruisers lost to the Wraith and a few hundred darts on the atmosphere, numbers that meant nothing to the Wraith ships cloning capabilities, and without a big change off plans on the part of the federation, things were going to get worse.

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Achilles class replicator facility**

**North observation deck**

**February 25, 2010**

Sam and Marshall were admiring the view of the main replicating bay, floating in the middle of the 1.5 kilometer long structure was the TFS-17 Alastor the eighth Achilles class vessel, the ship was 1.23 km in length, a little more than twice the length of a Daedalus class but more than eight times its mass, it was almost completed, the bright shimmering of replicating transporter beams could be seen working on the armor and outer systems of the ship.

"Nice view isn't it, good that you are behind that auto polarizing glass or both of you would already be blind."

Sam turned to see the approaching man

"Rear Admiral Carter!"

"Oh, Dr. Hoermann, good to see you, please call me Sam."

"Ok Sam, then its Robert for you, good to see you too" Said Dr. Robert Hoermann

"May I present you Commodore Marshall Whishnack." Said Sam

Robert extended his hand to greet the Commodore "Nice to meet you Commodore."

"Well due to Sam breaking protocol, you can call me Marshy, nice to meet you."

And the three of them broke into a laugh

"Nice way to break ice... Marshy!" said Sam patting his shoulder.

"Oh God, I'm going to regret this." and the three of them started laughing again

Robert turned to face Sam

"Well, I think a congratulations is on order?"

"Oh, please don't"

"Its not every day you get promoted, and even less to Rear Admiral."

"I was surprised believe me, I though Caldwell was getting it, but he refused so that he could stay in command of his forces in Pegasus, and well... It seems I was next in line."

"Come on, don't be so modest Sam, We owe every thing we've got to you and a few others."

"Ok, eh... thanks." Sam said brushing bright red while the other two started laughing again.

"Ok, that settled, lets start with the tour shall we?" said the Dr.

"Your are giving us the tour? The designer of the Achilles class is personally touring us?" said Sam joking

"Well you are getting command of the first Terran Federation Battle Group, so I have to be sure you are up to the task of handling my ships, I don't want to be yelled at because of an incompetent Rear Admiral." and he burst laughing.

"Yeah Yeah very funny." answer Sam, but without being able to hide her giggling, and both Sam and Marshall started walking out of the observation deck following Robert.

While they walked to the main bay to tour the Alastor, Robert was explaining how the replication facility worked.

"The facility is 1.6 kilometers long, 1 kilometer in width and 500 meters in height, the main bay taking the majority of that space, it is dedicated exclusively to the construction of Achilles class vessels up until the time that our tier 3 cities become operational, by then it will either be closed or used for something else, the main control and living areas are here in the northern part of the facility, to the south is the main gate where the finished ships are moved out, to the east and west we have two Gravimetric Enhanced Naquadria S Fusion Reactors on each side, for a total of four reactors with 800 Peta Watts of total power output, there are a total of 16 replication and transporter emitters, grouped in fours, one group to the ventral, another for the dorsal, one to starboard and a final group to port in relation to the ship being constructed, also to the east and west we have very big warehouses where we have the raw material our replicators use to create the Achilles class." said Dr. Hoermann

"Its big." said Sam

"Yes, we have 4 times the floor space of the Boeing Everett plant, and 60 times its volume, I know its huge, but the Achilles is not a 747, and the good thing is that this facility replicated itself up, we just build the four floor based emitters and one reactor, and everything else was replicated in less than a month." said Robert

"Wow."

"Yes wow."

"What about its defenses." asked Marshall

"The structure alone is made of replicated trinium, it was needed to support the width of the roof because having a ship being replicated in the middle we couldn't add support beams, and on the outside we have added a layer of armor, also made of trinium, that alone gives the facility a very strong structural integrity, and is capable of resisting small scale attacks, and as long as one emitter and one reactor survives, the facility can rebuild itself if it is damaged, the real defense are its shields, we have the same shield technology as the Daedalus class which is not as advanced as the Achilles class, but was deemed enough for us, and we also have the same drone weapon launcher as those equipped on the upgraded Daedalus, but we have four times the power output of a Daedalus, so we have sufficient fire power not only to defend us but even defend Earth of a major attack." answered the Dr.

"Ok, we are here."

They reached a door that had a label on top of it that read: -Utility Shuttle-, they passed through the door to find themselves inside a four person hover craft. The back of the little ship was latched to the door, and had a metal frame from where the auto polarize glass run up to the front curving itself up and closing the entire cabin.

"And this is?" asked Marshall

"This is a little toy we have to reconnoiter the ships we are constructing, not that we need it because we can do all that with sensors, but it doesn't feel the same with them you'll see what I mean."

The Dr. proceeded to start and control the craft as with a puddle jumper, the little vessel hummed to life, and all around the glass, several lines and symbols started to appear like a Heads Up Display, and as the ship took to the air, the lines started moving, several of them were easily identified as boundary lines.

"What are those?" asked Marshall

"Lines we don't want to cross, they take us directly into the path of the beams, and while we have fail safes, I don't want to bet my life on them and become an eternal part of an Achilles vessel, imagine you are replicating something in a standard replicator, would you put your head in where that something is being made?" answered Robert

"Oh, ok, I get it." said Marshall

The small craft started its approach from north to south, but on the top right corner looking south, the bow of the Alastor was reached first, and the massive proportions of the vessels were easily noted, the armor of the ship was glowing were the replicating beams were working, giving a more impressive view of the ship.

"You see what I mean now?" asked the Dr.

"Yeah, its impressive, and beautiful." answered Marshall

"Dr., ... sorry Robert, I can't wait to know the specs of this ship." said Sam

"I wouldn't expect less from you Sam."

"Oh, please no more technical mambo jambo." said Marshall

"Don't you worry Marshy, just sit and admire the view while these two tech freaks chat." said the Dr. chuckling

Marshall sited in the left back sit of the ship, with his face turned to see the Alastor, while Robert and Sam in the front started chatting.

"The Achilles class was being designed as a command ship before the ori, and before having the Asgard repository and computer core, after that I had to almost shred the design; the original weapons, computer systems, reactors, well the original everything is nothing as the ship you are looking now, only the hull design remains, thats why it looks so similar to a Daedalus but for its size. We redesign the vessel to incorporate all the technologies being implemented for tier 3 systems, and to be a ship capable of engaging one on one against every threat known to us, its no longer a command ship, but a multipurpose vessel, they will be the backbone of the Terran Federation Tier 3 planets,"

"The first thing we changed were the reactors, this vessel is equipped with 8 Gravimetric Enhanced Naquadria S Fusion Reactors, the same equipped on this facility, and on the upgraded Daedalus, the total output is 1.6 Exa Watts, that is double the power output of this base or of an O'Neill class Asgard Capital ship which are equipped with four, while the Achilles class is a little smaller than the Asgard vessel, the Asgard used their ships for moving their people out of a planet and replicating their civilization on another one, and that takes a lot of space, the Achilles is devoted almost entirely for combat, so we were able to put twice the number of reactors."

The utility shuttle stopped close to the bow of the ship, in front of the vessel could be seen what look like a ball turret but without a barrel, of nearly 70 meters in diameter.

"That is the main Weapon of the Achilles, an Adaptive Fusion Beam of the same design as those used on the Daedalus class, but far more powerful, it can channel the entire power output of the ship's Reactors 1.6 Exa Watts, while it is still inferior to an Ori beam in sheer power, we have the advantage of our weapon being adaptive, it can lock into the frequency of the enemy vessel shield and pierce it completely, it has a better rate of fire that almost equal the amount of power output of an Ori Ascendancy warship main beam, and it is more precise, but when in normal combat situations, when the ship uses energy for other systems, the main weapon has a two second worth of fire capacitor that will need to charge for every shot, it's fire ark is 180 degrees on it's forward hemisphere."

"Aren't they plasma beams?." asked Sam

"That was the Asgard designation for them, but they are actually in a state of contained fusion. Captains still refer to them as Plasma beams, but it's not the correct designation."

"1.6 eza watts zroza watts mrizia watts, what ever!, did you really got any of that?" Marshall asked Sam, while both Sam and the Dr. laugh their lungs out.

"Well you should know all that, you are getting command of a group of 4 ships after all." answered Sam

"I know my tactics and that I have a powerful weapon at my disposal that can whack any other vessel that stands in the way."

"I just hope that you don't use a weapon that delivers 380 Mega Tonnes of TNT equivalent per second to hit a vessel that you want to disable or capture Commodore." said the Dr.

"380 Mega Tonnes, as in Mega Tonnes of nuclear Weapons?" asked Marshall

"The same, the same as saying 4 thousand times per second the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima, per second!" answered the Dr.

"Oh! What was that again 1.6?"

"Exa Watts." answered Sam

"Ok." and then Sam and Robert could hear Marshall repeat in a very low voice "Exa watt, exa watt, exa watt, exa watt."

The shuttle moved to the back of the ship, where the super structure met the two hangar bays, in the same way as in the Daedalus class, the only difference was that the dorsal plate used in the Daedalus to install all the mayor antennas and to cover main engineering, was used on the Achilles on both the dorsal and ventral sides of the ship, and covered all the way to the end of the hangars, and didn't leave space between them and the super structure, the plates and the main structure where merged together, on the top and bottom of this plates were a total of 8 semi spheres like the one of the main beam, but this where smaller, there where four of them at the top and another four at the bottom, one at the front of each hangar on the top and bottom but close to the ship, and another at the back of each hangar on the top and bottom but on the outer area of the hangar.

"Those are the secondary Adaptive Fusion Beams, eight in total, and are positioned so that all of them are capable of firing to the front and back of the vessel, but only four can fire up, down, left or right at the same time, you can attack and retreat giving hell, each weapon has a total power output of 200 Peta Watts, twice of those on the Daedalus each."

"... and in Mega Tonne equivalent?" asked Marshal

"Around 48 per second each." answer the Dr.

"Wow."

"Yes, every single unit of the secondary beams has nearly 4 times the fire power of a whole Ha'tak, and they are also adaptive."

"And what about all those little buggers around the ship." asked Marshall

"Ah! They are the fruits of human ingenuity, if the Asgard had gotten those when fighting the replicators they wouldn't have had the problems they did."

"What do you mean Robert." asked Sam

"Well they are normal pulse weapons when used in offensive action, but they are the first line of defense of the ship, let me explain."

"The Achilles class has currently the most powerful data processing system, short of Atlantis, and also the most powerful sensors, both even better than the Asgard had on the O'Neill, better in quantity not quality, so we decided to give them a good use."

"We installed a total of 64 of this point defense cannons covering all arks around the ship, but giving priority to the forward areas, each turret has a total of 25 Peta Watts of power output in the form of Ten 2.5 Peta Joules pulses per second, the difference to other plasma pulses is that while they have a very strong gravimetric confined plasma in a very small bolt the barrel works also as a rail gun in that inside the plasma there is a small projectile, but with a higher muzzle velocity than the rail guns used on the Daedalus, the kinetic energy is slightly less than those equipped on the Daedalus, but you have a very strong hybrid weapon, if you require to engage a target like the replicators that are very resistant to energy weapons you can switch to dual fire mode, plasma and particle at the same time, if not you can use the plasma pulses alone, but that is not the good thing about them."

"The system operation on defense mode, can engage fighters and missiles including drone weapons, well as long as they are not phased out, but they can also engage pulse weapons, if you were to be engaged by a Ha'tak all the incoming fire will be intercepted by the defensive pulses that will destabilize the incoming bolt containment field, if you were to be attacked by rail gun fire they will also be intercepted, and if you are attacked by a replicator block, those used to board Asgard ships, the system can also engage them in dual plasma particle mode."

"But they can not engage beam weapons, they are too fast, so we are still susceptible to our fusion beams and the Ori main weapon, thats where our second defense layer enters into account, the shields."

"I heard they are slightly different than those used on the Daedalus?" asked Sam

"They use the same design as those used on the Upgraded Daedalus class, with a little upgrade on our part. The Daedalus uses a Single layered shield, it is very advance, the same used on the O'Neill Class, they are capable of cloaking, and are adaptive and transphasic, that means that it adapts to the frequency of weapons being fired and when that is accomplished the damage received by the shield is reduced considerably, but the reduction depends on the weapon being use against it, and being transphasic allows the shield to resist the impact of weapons that use phasing technologies to bypass it completely, like our drones. Now, you know that the replicators were able to adapt to the shields of the O'Neills before the shield adapted to the replicators, they had a much better processing capability leaving the Asgard vessels completely defenseless against them, our upgrade includes a second layer of the same design, but it works on a frequency completely opposite to the one needed to adapt to the first layer, for example, if the frequency of the first layer is A, and a weapon is capable of matching it it will be stop by the anti A of the second layer." answer the Dr.

"That means we are immune to replicators?" asked Marshall

"Maybe, maybe not, what I can tell you is the we now have two ways to defend ourselves against a threat like the replicators, our plasma particle pulses and a doubled layered shield, without taking into account the armor." answered the Dr.

"What about it?" asked Marshall

"I'm going into that, just let me finish with the shields,"

"Oh, ok"

"Compared to the Daedalus the shield matrix allows nearly 25 percent more energy per energy input, that means that if you use for example 1 unit of energy to charge the shield, in the Daedalus you will have 200 units of energy in the shield matrix when fully charged, but 250 units on the Achilles."

"How is that possible, aren't they the same type of shield only with two layers instead of one, I imagine the shield dissipations is the same for both right?" asked Sam

"Yes, you are correct, but the difference in frequency between the layers allow us to maintain the energy of the second layer for a longer time, allowing the shield to have more power per unit use to keep it up."

"And to finish the comparison, if the Daedalus uses its entire power output to feed the shields it can deploy a 46.4 Exa Joule strong shield, while if the Achilles does the same it can field a 400 Exa Joule shield, thats 8.6 times the power of the first one."

The face on Marshall was of a kinder garden boy being taught algebra, Sam noticed this and asked.

"What is it?"

"Well you were saying watts, and now you are using Joules, you two are messing with me right?

Sam and Robert chuckled

"Eh, no, let me explain, If I give you an apple what do you have?" asked Sam smiling

"Eh... an apple?"

"Correct, and if I give you an apple every second what do you have?"

"Many apples?"

She laughed

"Nop, you have an apple every second"

"So you see a joule is an apple, and a watt is a joule per second or an apple every second, so if some one says watt they are taking about energy per second, and if some one says joules they are taking about energy in total."

"You are doing good please don't lose me again."

"Our beams use watts because they give energy as long as you have the beam powered, if you have them for three seconds it will give more power than if you have them two, but a pulse weapon is measured in joules, because you don't add more energy to it in time, once the pulse leaves the weapon its on its own with a set amount of energy."

"Oh I get it, thanks professor." said Marshal laughing

"You are most welcome son." said Sam laughing

"May I continue or do you want me to get both of you into a classroom?" asked Robert chuckling

"Just go on, I'll keep my mouth shut I'll have plenty of time to ask Sam later."

The three of them laughed

"Well then, where was I."

"The armor I think?" answered Sam

"Oh yes, the armor, that is an Asgard master piece, and the reason it takes so much energy and time to replicate an Achilles."

"One week is a lot of time?" asked Marshall

"Well if the ship was made of steel it will take a few hours to build, so yes a lot of time." answered the Dr.

"To explain that I will have to go a little into the reactors, our Gravimetric Enhanced Naquadria S Fusion Reactors, work with hydrogen, to make it simple, we feed hydrogen into a gravimetric field that is far stronger than the sun's, in fact it is like a super nova, our sun and all star like it fuse smaller atoms into larger ones with the gravity in its core, but they have enough to produce metals up to iron, they don't have enough gravity in them to make stronger elements."

"But they do ha..." Sam didn't finish

"Sam I'm trying to make this simple."

"Oh sorry, ok"

"Thanks, ok all other elements are formed in the massive gravity of a nova or super nova explosion, and for naquada and trinium that is definitely a super nova, so returning to the reactor, we feed hydrogen, and immediately the strong gravimetric field starts fusing it into bigger elements, but once we reach a certain threshold, the energy that is being created in the fusion process of the smaller elements starts being use to fuse the bigger ones, the reactors have a sufficiently strong field as to reach naquadria, at that moment we are slightly positive in energy production but we modified naquadria with replicating beams to make it a stable naquadria isotope, thats why we call it naquadria S as in stable, so to create naquadria S via fusion, we use the energy of the fusion of hydrogen into helium, helium into etc, and etc into etc etc etc, which is a lot of energy just to make a higher element." explained the Dr.

"Ok so why do the Asgard call this a neutrino ion generator if its a fusion reactor that makes naquadria?, you are losing me again."

"Because once the reactor has the stable naquadria in it, which is in a state of plasma, the cascading naquadria decomposition releases only neutrinos, which feed all systems, what the reactor do is create a fuel which is non existent in raw form via a fusion process and then let the naquadria react upon itself decomposing into neutrino sub atomic particles, but thats not where we were going, I was explaining the armor."

"Now that you know the amount of energy to create naquadria via fusion, imagine the amount of energy to create it via replication."

"The armor is a Naquada, Trinium, Carbon alloy, the structure can not be recreated without replicator beams, because the three elements are intertwine together molecularly, it has three functions, to dissipate to absorb and to ablate, the naquada allows the armor to move energy from one place to another and dissipate it into space at a rate of one Tera watt every four square meters, the surface area of the Achilles class allow a total dissipation of 378 Peta Watts more than the entire power output of a Daedalus class."

"If the dissipation capabilities of the armor are exceeded it starts absorbing the excess into the carbon and trinium molecules which are structurally formed into nano tubes and fullerenes, giving them an absorption capability of one Tera Joule every two cubic meters, and with the ten meter width of the armor we have a total of 9.3 Exa Joules of absorption capacity, more than enough to withstand almost two direct hits from an Ori main beam."

"If this again is exceeded, the armor starts ablating at a rate of ten cubic meters per Tera Joule, giving a maximum ablation capability leaving no armor on the ship of 1.86 Exa Joules."

"I'm not even going to ask, I'll read about it later, or watch some simulations, this time I didn't get a thing, the good stuff is that I feel safe that there are people with the brains to understand this." said an anxious Marshall

"Thats our part, we also feel safe, knowing that there are people like you that understand the tactics necessary to defeat an enemy, an the balls to face them, you do your part and we'll do ours." said the Dr.

They shared a knowing look, and a deep understanding of each ones responsibilities. The shuttle went now to the aft of the vessel, were the engines were visible.

"The sublight speed is a little higher than the Daedalus, but the Hyperdrive speed is far far greater, we use the same hyperdrive system as the O'Neills, but the Achilles is a little faster than it because of its power output, to make a comparison the Daedalus can reach Pegasus in a little more than 4 days with their new reactor that can max out its hyperdrive, but the Achilles can do the same in less than half a hour."

"Yeah I know the Asgard made it all the way from Ida to Milky Way in an hour," said Sam

The shuttle now passed through the starboard hangar bay, and into the other side of the facility.

"The two remaining weapons of the Achilles are its fighters and its drones, on each hangar bay we have the a total of 256 fighters for a total of 512, unlike the F-302 the SF-1 is a very compact space fighter, it does not have wings and can go through a stargate, it is very similar in form to an ori fighter, it carries a frontal spinal adaptive fusion beam of 1 Peta Watt, and two plasma particle pulses in its side that can fire ten 50 Tera Watt bolts each per second, behind and near the reactor there is a drone weapon launcher that carries a total of 64 drones and can fire them at a rate of one every 5 seconds or the pilot can let its drones charge before firing a salvo, they are equipped with shields and armor of the same type used by the Achilles, and the shields have a total strength of 250 Peta Watts, almost the same power of our research stations but far more advanced, the reactor is a Gravimetric Enhanced Naquadria S Fusion Reactor with a power output o 3 Peta Watts."

"The good thing about the fighter is its computer system, we can down load a copy of the pilot's mind into it and we don't have to risk our pilots into engaging the enemy, almost the entire crew is assigned a fighter and in non combat situations they can act as very advanced escape capsules, and if the fighters are committed there are sufficient standard escape pods for the entire crew."

"You are telling me that even a cook gets to fly one of this," asked Marshall

"No, because there are no cooks, we have replicators." he laughed

"But yes everybody gets the download into its mind on how to handle a fighter, every crew on this ship will know how to do everything."

"Wouldn't it be better to copy the mind of the best pilot and use it on all fighters."

"We get that question all the time, but we think its better to give variety into a combat situation, because every mind works different, but if necessary it can be done."

The shuttle approached the end of the journey and passed near the drone launchers, the dorsal one could be seen.

"We have two drone launchers, one in the dorsal and one in the ventral areas, we have eight times the drones carried by the Daedalus, and at maximum power it can fire a total of 320 drones per second."

"The last thing I wanted to show you, but its not in our line of sight, is the main weapons of the Achilles in peace time, it's external replicator, it is use to replicate tier 2 cities or what are being call outpost cities."

"Don't worry we'll see enough of it next week." said Sam

"Why?" asked the Dr.

"Well, the Alastor, Ajax, Agamemnon and the Aether are going to be replicating the last four outpost cities of Earth next week, and we'll be aboard the Alastor." Answered Sam

"So you are being assigned the Alastor?"

"No I'm not, but Marshal here is, he is joining Captain Zhu Gongshi, and the Alastor will act as the flagship of the forth group, and I'm getting the Alcyone next week and be in command of the first battle group, but I'll be joining them until the Alcyone is ready."

"Great, well Rear Admiral Sam and Commodore Marshy what do you say in getting the hell out of here," Asked the Dr.

"Wait no, could you explain everything again, I promise to pay attention this time." answered Marshall and the three of them started laughing.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note:

- Someone mentioned that the Achilles class at 1.23 km can´t be twice the size of the Daedalus because the last one is 225m long (2/3 of a Nimitz class aircraft carrier which requires no hyperdrive, sublight engines, etc etc is too small for me). I have no intention in going in to a lengthy discussion about it, but the size as many things on the series tend to vary a lot. I have made pixel count of the ship compared to Carter on the Ori gate, and I have check discussion forums about this same topic, and I´m using 585m for the length of the Daedalus class on my story. There are a lot of people who have studied this from screen shots and I tend to agree with them.

**Chapter Two**

**Earth – Terran Federation**

**Somewhere in the Pacific**

**February 26, 2010**

A huge shadow projected itself upon the surface of the ocean. In the middle of it, there was a circular formation several meters wide in which no waves where present. A simple circular pool of calm water. On the borders of it, waves came crushing up into an invisible wall. Slowly the water inside the formation started lowering down, forming a perfect cylinder of air surrounded by water. In a few minutes, it had grown all the way to the ocean floor.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light erupted on top of the recently dried land,. The cylinder continued its expansion for several hundred meters consuming the crust, before fading and leaving a smooth wall of rock.

It remained calm for a few minutes, before the light reappeared. This time slowly filling the cylinder with a silvery type of metal.

On top, and projecting the huge shadow upon the surface of the ocean stood the TFS-17 Alastor, with its external replicator at full power. The ship transferred crust material into orbit via its transporter replication system. Once it has finished doing that it started using that material and converting it into trinium and then transporting it back into the crust to form the anchor of Outpost 32. The system converted the raw materials from orbit and the naquada stored in its hangars and created trinium, the base metal of tier 2 cities. The higher element Naquada was used to reduce the time and energy required to produce trinium. It also helped the Federation to slowly get rid of the naquada asteroid that represented a security concern.

The Alastor had departed the replication facility the day before. It headed for the Naquada Asteroid, where it filled its hangars with the asteroids raw material. It headed back to Earth and the replication facility, where it transferred the raw materials into the facility´s warehouses. It kept some naquada in its hangar and headed to Earth Outpost 32 replication coordinates in the South Pacific, where it started replicating the last outpost city of Earth.

For the next seven days, four Achilles class vessels replicated Earth Outpost 29 to 32. Some of them in the ocean, where the city was anchor to the ground via a trinium pole. Earth was now like a pentakis dodecahedron, where every vertex was a tier 2 city. Now designated outposts.

A few days later, Sam and Marshall were in the Flag bridge of the Alastor. They were supervising the construction of EO32, which was being displayed in a holographic image in the center of the room. The pole could be seen extending all the way from the ground to the surface of the ocean where it connected itself with the small city. The outpost was nearly finished.

"You have been quiet Sam, is there something wrong?" asked Marshall

"Oh no! I was just thinking that´s all"

"What? You don´t know where you left your ships?"

As commander of the 1st Battle Group, Sam had been supervising the deployment of the Battle Group´s ships. She had four Achilles class currently replicating Outposts on Earth. Another four Achilles and three Upgraded Daedalus were not assigned and were currently deployed in orbit and around the system as pickets. One Upgraded Daedalus, the Sun Tzu was en route to Pegasus, while another three were already deployed there.

"Ha ha ha very funny. No its just that... well a few years ago I could never have imagine we would have been in this position. You saw the Galactic holographic display a few minutes ago, You saw the amount of Research Stations and reconnaissance satellites already deployed out there and now we are finishing replicating outposts here on Earth and we´ll soon start replicating them off world. That just got me thinking, that´s all."

"Yeah its impressive but I´ll feel better when those Research Stations are converted to outposts, ´cause they are not good in combat."

"Mmm. Yes I see your point, but we have to test them first. It will be a few months before we start replicating them out of Earth."

"Have you seen any simulation of them in combat?"

"A few, mainly against a Ha`tak or a small group of them. A single outpost can defend against several Ha`taks with no problem and an Outpost World containing 32 of them is a very tough target to break even for an Ori warship. But our true strength will come with tier 3 cities and above."

"I haven´t seen any schematics of them, but I heard we´ll start replicating them next year. Is that right?"

"Yes and no, We´ll start deploying them next year but they will be replicated from the outpost inside out, we are not going to need the Achilles class to do it. We only have to send a special replication system to an outpost and it will start converting into a tier 3 city using an automated replication system."

"That´ll be nice to see."

"It will actually be a slower process than the construction of an outpost, because the conversion is taking place in a populated place but yes it will be a sight to see."

**Pegasus Galaxy**

**Deep Space**

**Wraith Queens meeting**

**March 18, 2010**

It was a blur at first. Melding of several dozen Queen minds was not an easy task. But one that was nonetheless performed on a constant basis. It started as memories and speeches of different individuals. Those shared memories fused together silencing the quarreling voices. Now the Queens where a Queen. A single mind with a single purpose. Searching through its expanded consciousness for answers in how to deal with the human menace.

The mega mind saw its fleet. 36 Hive ships. 1324 Cruisers and nearly 400,000 thousands darts. It saw its ship production capabilities. 711 ship cloning facilities. Distributed far and wide through out the Pegasus galaxy. Each one capable of producing a cruiser in 11 months or a Hive ship every 51. Not the speed as having them equipped with a ZPM but the standard fusion reactors will have to do. All had been activated two years before and were now producing cruisers exclusively.

In previous meetings things where set in motion to create an upgraded Hive Ship. One with sufficient human cloning capabilities to feed the entire Hive. Allowing the Wraith to become self sufficient. The design was ready. It was the same ship currently in use. The difference could be seen on the forward areas of the vessel. Where instead of growing in two parts and then joining again, the free space was now a single solid block. It was there where the human cloning facilities were added.

Now that the new batch of cruisers were completed, it was time to switch production to Hive ships. 51 months from now, 711 Upgraded Hive ships will be deployed. One added upgrade of the ship, is the capability of not only cloning humans, but also to grow a cruiser in its external surface.

More thoughts pour through the mega mind. The breeding of new queens for the new Hive ships and those without a queen. The upgrade of the current Hives to clone humans and produce cruisers. The building of more ship cloning facilities and finally the capture of a human ship in order to research its hyperdrive technology. A hyperdrive system that will allow the Wraith to spread to other Galaxies. Specially the human`s home galaxy.

"Yes, Yes" it thought. "It will not be an easy task, but one that must be done."

"This humans are not stupid. We need a bait. A bait they can not refuse," while the mind thought this, the images of the plan unfurled. It saw a single Hive ship, surrounded by hundreds of cruisers and thousands upon thousands of darts. All converging on a populated planet with the intention of devoiding it of human life. If that wasn't enough to force the humans into action where the wraith maintained the odds, nothing will.

"This humans have started a war they can not win. Soon our forces will grow. It will take years to reach the numbers we had on our war with the Lanteans, but with our new Hive ships and with the expected acquisition of human hyperdrives we'll be unstoppable,"

After several minutes of defining the course of action, the blur returned. The queens had regained their individuality.

**Earth – Terran Federation**

**Atlantis city ship – Federation Capitol**

**Council Meeting**

**April 8, 2010**

"So, how did they manage to anchor it to hyperspace?" asked a council member

"It was actually easy," said Rodney "but ingenious."

"So we are having those listening probes soon right?" asked Jack trying to avoid a lengthy scientific explanation.

"...ehhh? Oh yeah." said Rodnay turning to the council member again. "So as I was saying its ingenious because they actually place the listening probe between normal space and hyperspace. They create a hyperspace opening on top of a sun, and close it when the probe is in the middle. The probe isn´t destroy when the vortex collapses because they create a temporal shield around it which is modulated to penetrate an intermediate dimension between normal space and hyperspace. Now, this dimension is very close to normal space so the gravitational forces of the star near the probe acts like an anchor to it."

"So we are having those listening probes soon right?"

"Well yes, the probe is ready and the shield will not be hard to replicate, so I think we could have a prototype in less than a week."

"Councilor, how is it that we can communicate with the probe if it`s not in normal space or hyperspace?" asked the same council member

"Our subspace communications work the same in this dimension as they work in the other two, so no problem."

"That´s great." said the council member "You said at the beginning of the meeting that there were two things you wanted to discuss? Would you like to continue with the second one before we move on with the agenda?"

"Yes thank you. As you all know we removed the Asgard computer core from the Odyssey in order to avoid capture and placed it in Atlantis with several backups in secure places. But the original installed by the Asgard is the one we constantly use here on Atlantis. Well it seems the core´s registry was designed to deliver a message when a certain amount of information was accessed. I suspect the Asgard wanted us to achieve a certain level of knowledge before sending this message, but didn´t count on Daniel and Sam to get stuck in a time dilation field to avoid the Ori. So the combined access of the dilation field event and our actual research which is also big, has trigger the appearance of this message."

"What does the message said?" asked Daniel

"It is a recording made by Thor, saying that we have acquire sufficient knowledge to allow us access to their most important repository, there is a single stargate address embedded in the message and Thor has specified that a stargate connection will only be allowed from Earth." answered Rodney, activating a holographic display in the middle of the room, for everyone to see the message.

When the message finished, Daniel turned to Rodney and asked: "I thought that we had their entire repository of knowledge, what does he means with their most important repository?"

"I don´t know Daniel, I thought we had everything too. He may be referring to special technologies or things they treasured, I just don´t know"

"Well we should go and take a look," said Jack "I´ll assemble a team."

"I want to go." said Daniel

"Me too." said Rodney

"I´m sorry gentlemen, but you are council members and are not allow to go on reconnaissance missions. You must wait until the site has been deem secure and only if your presence is required." said one of the councilors.

"But this is extremely important, I must be allow to go."

"Sorry Doctor Jackson, but those rules applies to all of us, its for the safety of the Federation, but let me assure you, that after the site is secured, if your presence is required you´ll be allow to go."

**Earth – Terran Federation**

**Atlantis city ship – Federation Capitol**

**Gate room**

**A few hours later**

The Gate room was bustling with activity. A large party had assembled to watch the SG Team depart including Admiral Voss, Admiral O´Neill, Dr. Jackson and Dr. McKay.

The gate burst open, making a stable exo galactic worm hole connection to the address provided by Thor´s message. A MALP was being moved into position, when a holographic image of an Asgard appeared in front of the gate.

"Greetings, I am Thor, Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet."

The holographic image of Thor being transmitted from the other side of the worm hole started looking around, finding its mark in O´Neill.

"O´Neill"

"Thor buddy, so good to see you." said Jack turning to see Daniel with a big question mark in his face asking ´Isn`t this guy dead?´ "You look good, healthy and I´ll have to say ehh alive."

"It is only a holographic representation of my body O´Neill."

"... and your speech is also a representation?"

"No. But further explanation will require a direct contact." Thor turned to see Daniel "Daniel Jackson will you be willing to come through the gate. There are some matters of importance that I wish to discuss with you"

"Sure Thor." Daniel said turning to Jack as if asking for permission, which Jack agreed immediately. "Do you require some else to go through?"

"No. It is preferable that only one person comes through. I am asking you, because some scientific knowledge is required. I will be waiting here."

And with that said, the holographic image disappeared and a few seconds later and with permission of Admiral Voss and Jack, Daniel passed through the gate.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Three**

**Unknown location – Ida Galaxy**

**Solid core planet**

**Center core**

**April 8, 2010**

The stargate had just shut down and Daniel found himself in a dimly lit room with the exact width of the stargate and circular in formation. The room ended in a wall a few meters ahead, that seemed to have been formed by the event horizon burst of the stargate, but that appeared to be covered by a naquada-trinium-carbon metal. The same used on the O´Neills and on the Achilles and by looking at the residual ripples travelling along the surface, it was also shielded. Turning around he could see the stargate embedded to the back wall, with a transporter beam emitter in the center. The stargate started dialling immediately and Daniel knew he didn´t have any place to move to avoid the event horizon burst. Before panic struck, he was beamed away by the Asgard transporter emitter. The Stargate locked into the new address and Daniel was materialized into a new room.

"Welcome Daniel Jackson," said the holographic image of Thor

"Thanks Thor. What was that all about?"

"Security precautions. This installation is outside the Ida Galaxy and can only be dialled from the intermediary installation you just came from which we call Bifröst. It is located at the center core of a solid core planet, which makes it difficult for an orbital scan to detect it, and is also constantly protected by transporter beam dispersion emitters that are only brought down for a fraction of a second to allow the gate room emitter to work. If someone found out the stargate address of the installation and came through it, will be unable to dial out without being destroyed by the stargate itself. The replicators forced us to take such measures. I am sorry for the inconvenience."

"I understand."

"This Daniel Jackson is Niflheim, it is where all Asgard minds are stored. Before loosing our capability to continue cloning our bodies, it was here that an Asgard would have been reborn if lost to any kind of body failure. Please come this way." said Thor pointing to a circular structure in the floor that stood below a tube in the ceiling, to what could only be a lift of some kind.

"We really thought we had lost you and by you I mean all the Asgard."

The lift started to move upwards entering the tube with Daniel and Thor´s holographic image.

"It was necessary. There were many who thought that if someone found out that the Asgard depended on you people for a solution, it could have brought more enemies to your door step. Just to make sure that no Asgard will trouble them in the future. There are also many other reasons for faking our demise."

"I understand Thor, don´t worry."

"I am sorry to say Daniel Jackson, that releasing our repository to your people was not only meant as a legacy or something done for the sake of your future, but for many Asgard the only reason in doing that was for our future."

"Please, you don´t need to feel sorry. It is perfectly understandable and it has given us the means to defeat the Ori and keep the Wraith at bay. Without it, I think we would have already been defeated and if it happens to give you a chance for a future, well its perfectly find for me."

"I am glad you agree."

"Look Thor. The Asgard may have saved us in the past and we may have returned the favour by defeating the replicators. Your people may think that by giving us your repository. We would be in your debt and morally forced to help you in finding a solution to the cloning problem, but I can tell you now, without any hint of a doubt and make it very very clear, that you will have the friendship and support of my people no matter what. We are your allies and if we have to bleed and die to help you, we will."

Even thou Thor was currently an holographic image, it was clear that the computer was very well program to express even emotions. The surprise in his face, was only dim by the pride of his chest. He was like a father looking to a just graduated son.

"It is and honor to be your friends and allies Daniel Jackson."

"Likewise Thor," Daniel turned to see the wall of the lift and asked, "Where are we."

"The gate room is located below the station and connected to it through this lift. In case the replicators infiltrated this base through the gate, the entire structure will be detached and will enter hyperspace immediately. There are many security precautions. Niflheim is not only protected by its location, but it is the most powerful Asgard installation ever constructed."

"I see."

They reached the main station access room and Daniel was immediately beamed away to the main control center.

"This is Niflheim control center,"said Thor and in the middle of the room another holographic image appeared, this time of the space station. It was a very simple design, a large cylinder with a long and thin interconnection tube at its bottom that ended in a sphere, which Daniel guessed was the gate room. The main cylindrical station was divided in four levels, each with four arms extending to the north, south, east and west from the center of the station, for a total of twelve. Each arm had a total of 16 docking ports for star ships. All were occupied, and there were also a huge amount of vessels floating beyond the space station.

The 256 docking ports were clearly occupied by a same number of O`Neill class capital ships, but Daniel couldn't guess out the numbers of the ships beyond, and judging by the size of the O´Neills docked to it, Daniel guess the station to be around 12 km in length without counting the gate room umbilical, and 3 to 4 km in width.

"That´s a lot of ships Thor, how many are there?" asked Daniel

"Yes. The entire Asgard fleet is here. A total of three hundred and eleven O`Neills, fifty one Daniel Jacksons and two hundred and seventy nine Beliskners." answered Thor adding, "But there are also nearly eighty million Asgard minds stored here. A fraction of what we once were, but all there is now."

Thor paused for a moment, and continued speaking, "Daniel Jackson, in behalf of the entire Asgard race, we ask for your peoples help. There is little else we can do to research a solution. We understand that the task requested make take centuries or millennia to accomplish, but we have faith in your peoples abilities to find a solution. Niflheim is design to last indefinitely. Will you help us?"

Daniel was staring at the holographic station and turned to see Thor, "I think we already have a solution Thor, it's not a permanent one but it's a solution."

"What do you mean Daniel Jackson."

"We found Asgards in Pegasus, and their bodies seem to be in far better shape. They are a little aggressive and we don´t have diplomatic contact with them. We don´t even know were they are now, but rest assure that we´ll find them. Thor I'm not an expert in genetics, so if you could give me information of what we need to bring you in order to restore your cloning capability, it will certainly help the experts on Earth."

Thor was still stunned by the information and it took a few seconds to gather his thoughts and answer. "Asgard in Pegasus," he murmured and turn to see Daniel "This is an unexpected turn of events Daniel Jackson, there were many expeditions send to find a solution, but of those sent to Pegasus all came back,"

"I'm afraid that this group was not on official business Thor, they went there during the Ancient´s war with the Wraith to experiment on humans without anyone finding out, but after the Wraith defeated the Ancients, they engaged the Asgard and destroyed their intergalactic capable vessels, forcing them to hide."

"If what you say is correct Daniel Jackson, then I'm afraid we must decline. Our race is at stake, but we will not accept a solution that required the suffering or death of other people, no matter how desperate we are." said Thor lowering his head.

"I see your point Thor, but there is no proof of what they did. What we do know is that the technology you developed is helping defeat the Wraith and in consequence giving the people of Pegasus a ray of hope. It's not your responsibility of what others from your race did. But you can make it your responsibility to repay the legacy left by those sacrifices and help us and the people of Pegasus get rid of the Wraith. I can also promise you that those avenues of approach will no longer be necessary, because you can count on us. As long as your procedures are non intrusive. We'll fill our combine research with volunteers for you to gather genetic material and I will certainly be one of them."

Thor turned tu look up again and said, "You are most wise Daniel Jackson, we accept your help and we will repay our debt with the people of Pegasus by siding with you in the war against the Wraith."

"Thanks Thor. We welcome your support as well."

"Now, on the information you requested, we only need a chromosomal DNA sample."

"I'm not certain about chromosomal DNA Thor, but we acquired two exoskeletons from them, and from inside the suits, we were able to gather DNA from the wearers. Of that I'm certain."

Thor raised his holographic eyebrows and said, "While chromosomal DNA is preferable. Any DNA will at least allow us to momentarily regain our cloning capabilities Daniel Jackson."

"Then I´ll send what we have immediately, and if that's not good enough, we´ll go find them."

"I can not express the gratitude of our people Daniel Jackson."

"Neither can we Thor." said Daniel while smiling to Thor, who returned his gesture with a bow.

"Thor, I was wondering what happened to the thirty thousand year old Asgard body you found, was there something wrong with it?"

"No Nothing, But it is a less evolved Asgard and its brain is not good enough for what we need. It is stored here, and is definitely the cornerstone of our research. When we regain our bodies, our efforts will mostly focus on increasing brain capacity without degrading the body."

"That´s good news."

"Yes, but not as good as the one you delivered."

They continued talking for several minutes and then headed back to the gate room.

"You will be transported back to Bifröst and from there to Earth. It has been good to see Daniel Jackson."

"Sorry Thor, Earth no longer allows incoming wormholes from gates that don´t belong to its same tier level. I´ll explain that to you some other time, but if you need to contact us it will be better with subspace communications. I have to go through the Alfa site, and then to Earth via Starship."

"I see. There is no problem, I have the address of your Alpha site available. Thanks again Daniel Jackson."

"Thank you too Thor, see you next time."

**Hyperspace - Milky Way Galaxy**

**Free Jaffa Nation Fleet - Heading 334 degrees from galactic core**

**7500 light years beyond Scutum-Centaurus Arm**

**April 16, 2010**

Nearly four weeks ago, The Jaffa lost contact with Nakgora one of their farthest colonies. Every attempt to communicate with it via stargate or with subspace communications failed. The only message received before contact was lost, was a request for help and a report that the single Ha`tak protecting the colony had been destroyed. The FJN council had ordered and investigation and all ships near the colony that could be spared were gathered in what will be a reconnaissance in force operation. 17 Ha`taks, 42 Al`keshes and 3 Tel`taks plus the Ha`tak´s glider squadrons were approaching the colony and readying for transition to normal space.

"Master Rak`nor, all three Tel`taks had jump in the outskirts of the system and are proceeding to our colony under clock. We should have passive sensor readout in a few minutes."

Rak`nor stood from the command chair and approach the main console and stood besides Hai`rak the ship's operator, "We'll wait in hyperspace until we have determine what we are dealing with, How much time until we reach the system?"

"Twelve more minutes, Fleet Master."

"Good, order all glider squadrons ready. They launch as soon as we enter system."

"Yes, Master."

A few minutes later the scout ships started transmitting sensor telemetry. The images being received, showed a fleet of unknown ships in orbit above the colony, clearly in battle formation with their bows pointing towards space to the exact location of the approaching FJN Fleet.

"Well, the first thing we know about them, is that they have sufficiently advance sensors to detect our approach." said Rak`nor "What information do we have from passive scans."

"There is a very big ship in the middle of the formation Master, sensors are showing a length of one thousand nine hundred and sixty eight meters, nearly two kilometers Master. It is surrounded by twenty seven smaller vessels but still big at six hundred and fifty six meters. They are gather around the main vessel in a funnel like formation. There are eight at nearly sixty kilometers range at forty five degree angle in front of the main vessel and again forty five degree separation each from the center forming a perfect circle. From the first eight vessels but at a range of nearly one hundred and twenty kilometers and at twenty two point five degrees from them, there are another eight vessels, forming a second circle with the same forty five degrees separation from the center. From that second line but at a range of three hundred and sixty kilometers and at eleven point twenty five degrees from them, there is a third line with another eight vessels in the same circular formation with the same forty five degree separation from the center,"

"behind the main vessel, there are a total of three more escorts at nearly sixty kilometers and forty five degree angle, but forming a triangle."

"We are also reading a total of nine smaller vessels with a length of two hundred and eighteen meters. They are operating individually and are far away of the main fleet but still relatively close to the planet. I believe them to be scouts or something similar because of the sensor energy emissions emanating from them."

"Is there anything in our data crystals on the origin of those ships?" asked Rak`nor

"No, Master. The only thing we know is what the council told us. That the Goa`uld avoided the area beyond this colony. It seems they lost several ships and any information gathered was kept strictly to themselves. There are no records that we know of."

"Which one of the smallest vessels is farthest away from their fleet?"

"This one," said Hai`rak, showing a dot on the main screen, "It´s more than five hundred thousand kilometers away."

"Dispatch a Ha`tak to engage it, but prepare all the fleet to assist just in case."

"Master? shouldn't we concentrate on their fleet?"

"Our mission is to gather intelligence on the source of the attack on our colony and to retake it if possible. We now know the source and in order to retake our colony without heavy losses, we need to know their capabilities. That´s why I'm sending a single Ha`tak to engage their smallest vessel. If we are unable to defeat that unit, it would be unwise to engage their main fleet."

"I understand Master. I'm sending the order to the leading Ha`tak now."

A few seconds later a Ha`tak entered system 700 km from the designated target and opened fire immediately. A standard FJN Ha`tak carried 12 Heavy Staff Cannons with a maximum output of 5 PJ per bolt each and 48 Point Defence Staff Cannons with a maximum output of 78 TJ per bolt each. Eight of the Twelve main cannons were in line of sight of the target and were firing as if there was no tomorrow. The first bolts passed harmlessly to the sides of the heavily evasive flying relatively small craft. But the fire was so intense that the first bolt hit the vessel's shield, and a second one followed bringing the shields down. Three, four, five and the small alien craft was nothing more than dust.

"YESSS." shouted Hai`rak

"You just witness the destruction of a vessel that had maybe fifty times less mass than our Ha`tak, so don´t let your emotions jump to conclusions until we defeat their main fleet." Said Rak`nor seriously but with half a smile on his face.

"Yes Master."

"Order that Ha`tak to return to hyperspace and have it rejoin formation."

Hai`rak relay the order to the deployed Ha`tak and at the same time as the FJN vessel was leaving, the smallest alien vessels were heading to the security of their fleet.

"We jump at one hundred thousand kilometers from the enemy fleet and we´ll immediately deploy our gliders. Have them join formation with the Al`keshes and have both of them proceed in front of us but away from our firing arcs."

"Shouldn't we jump directly into firing positions Master?"

"Hmm," said Rak`nor taking a deep breath, "that´s a typical Goa`uld strategy which is good for some circumstances but not for every single one. Specially when there is little knowledge of our enemy´s capabilities. No. We´ll proceed with caution and learn from our enemy and if necessary we´ll retreat to fight another day. That is something I learned from our Tau`ri allies."

"But Master, We are warriors. We face our enemies head on. We are not sneaky as the Tau`ri." said Hai`rak with a lot of revulsion in his voice on the last phrase.

Rak`nor turned to see him face to face, "Yes, we are Warriors, but you are too young and inexperienced to understand that the Tau`ri are the best of them all. You didn´t fight alongside them and you certainly didn´t fight against them, or you wouldn't be speaking those words. We must not be the warriors the Goa`uld wanted us to be. We must learn to think for ourselves and to adapt to new circumstances."

"But Master, ..."

"ENOUGH!" said Rak`nor with a definite resolution in his voice, "Proceed with the attack!"

"As you command Fleet Master"

Space was momentarily lit by the 59 jumpoints from the FJN fleet deployment. All ships made their transition to normal space and immediately started taking positions to the flanks and front of Rak`nor´s Ha`tak. The Al`keshes made the same but on the top an bottom of the formation. Immediately a total of 816 Death Gliders started pouring from the 17 Jaffa motherships and headed for the two formations of Al`keshes to provide cover.

In front of the JFN Fleet, the alien vessels maintained their formation, but started launching en masse, what looked like a fighter/missile hybrid.

"Scan them!" said Rak`nor

Hai`rak didn´t need to be told twice, and almost immediately had projected the new contact on the main screen. The front was half a sphere and looked like a black dome of polarized glass, it was followed by a long tube that flatten in the back. They certainly looked like missiles, but their formation flying suggested fighters.

"Master, the vessel is seven meters in length and two meters in width. Full scans report a forward energy weapon, it is also equipped with a low yield fusion reactor which may suggest that the forward weapon is plasma based. The enemy fleet is launching them in hundreds and are headed our way."

"Order the fleet to change course one hundred and eighty degrees. We´ll engage those, whatever they are, away from their fleet."

The Ha`taks simply started moving in the other direction as their non Newtonian sublight drive allow them to move in every direction without changing the ship orientation. The Al`keshes and gliders however needed to turn their ships around to move away from the enemy's fleet. Three minutes later the aliens had finished launching an impressive number of fighters/missiles.

"Master, Sensors are detecting a total of thirty four thousand one hundred and twenty fighters. The enemy fleet and one third of their fighters are keeping station, but the rest of them are gaining in on our position. What are your orders?"

Rak`nor hesitated a moment before answering. The number of enemy fighters/missiles really blew away his confidence. "Order Al`keshes to form inside the fleet and the gliders... and the gliders pull them back. Order them to engage any fighter that enters the fleet perimeter." Seconds later, the big guns of the Ha`taks started firing into the enemy´s approaching formations, followed a little later by their secondary guns and those of the Al`keshes. The combined fire power of the Ha`taks and Al`keshes were sending close to eight hundred plasma bolts per second into the ranks of enemy fighters and even with the size of space and the heavy evasive flying of the enemy ships, many bolts were finding its mark. Some of them even disintegrating two or three at the same time.

The alien light craft responded in kind, only that this time there were more than twenty thousand bolts per second heading into the FJN Fleet. The number of alien fighters firing was staggering. Jaffa shields were blazing with the incoming fire, but little damage was being done. The only losses were inflicted when stray shots hit the unshielded gliders, which broke up falling out of formation.

"Master, enemy fire is extremely weak. Sensors detect energy buildup before firing of one hundred and eighty mega joules. Even if they concentrate all their fire into a single Al`kesh they will never be able to bring its shields down."

"Hmm. That´s strange. Still our gliders our unshielded and will suffer heavy casualties if we order them to engage. We´ll use this to our advantage. We´ll drain their numbers by attrition, they can´t hurt us. Keep the gliders back and lets..." He was unable to finish, when a bright flash of light, follow by another and another entered through the main window. The enemy hybrid fighter missiles had entered the perimeter and were no longer using their low power pulse cannons, but their internal fusion warhead. The alien drones were ramming Jaffa ships en masse. "Give me a reading! Fast!"

Before any response came from Hai`rak, he could see several Al`keshes being destroyed and the forward Ha`tak which could be seen directly in front of the Pel´tak´s observation window, had his shields shimmering brightly before collapsing completely. Without hesitation, hundreds of alien drones plunged into it and detonated their fusion warhead, some even bounced out after hitting and exploded in space, but the number of drones impacting the Ha`tak made that irrelevant. Soon it broke up and drones detonated inside it, completely obliterating the vessel.

"Order all gliders to engage, tell them to make a single pass and to rendezvous with us beyond that moon," Rak`nor said pointing to a moon in the main screen, "and order the fleet to enter Hyperspace."

Hundreds of Jaffa gliders forced their way into the enemy´s forward echelons. They passed close to their motherships and soon started firing their staff cannons against the drones. The forward advanced was momentarily halted by the sheer number of gliders joining the fray, while some ships from the fleet were already entering hyperspace. The enemy´s drones moved like a shoal of fish, they tried to reach the fleeing fleet, but the gliders had done their job and allow the last vessels to escape. They were already breaking the engagement in the middle of a horde of alien drones and were accelerating to escape velocity, when the unthinkable happened. All the drones that were inside the glider´s formation, which were numbered in the thousands, detonated in a single giant explosion.

In a blink of an eye, the FJN Fleet´s glider squadrons ceased to exist. The few fortunate ones that made it beyond the blast area were now headed for the rendezvous point.

"It can´t be, they sacrificed thousands of fighters to destroy our gliders!" said Hai`rak watching the main screen in shock.

Rak`nor turned to see him, "Sacrificed? Will you say that we sacrifice our plasma bolts to destroy the enemy. Those drones are weapons, and very effective ones. Their fleet is still unengaged and we have already lost eleven Al`keshes and one Ha`tak, plus nearly eight hundred gliders." He returned his sight to the main screen. "Have the fleet transition to normal space and send one of the Tel`taks under cloak to the planet. Have it scan to see if there are still some Jaffa alive."

"Yes, Master."

A few minutes later the FJN Fleet transition into normal space. The 34 surviving Gliders were still a few minutes away and increasing their distance from the thousands of drones following them.

The cloaked Tel`tak dispatch to the planet, was nearly 30,000 km from the planet, when the main enemy warship´s wings extended into what looked like two arms, from which emerged a pair of cannons. The enemy warship accelerated to attack speed and instantly turned to face the Tel`tak, and without any warning fired its two main cannons, vaporizing it.

"Master..."

"I saw it. It seems their sensors are better than we thought." He took a breath and said, "Have the gliders return to their ships. We´ll wait for those drones. We´ll take as many of them as we can before we retreat."

"Yes, Master." said Hai`rak while giving commands to his console and then adding, "I have a new count on enemy drones. There are a total of twenty nine thousand seven hundred and sixty five. They have expended more than four thousand."

"They have enough to destroy us several times over."

A few minutes later the last glider returned to its Mothership. The alien´s drones were approaching firing distance and the FJN Fleet was already moving fast in the other direction to force the drones to stay in weapons range for a longer time.

"This time as soon as they enter heavy weapons range, increase speed to match theirs. I don't care if you have to reroute energy going into the shields. We are not going to need them. We are going to slowly reduce their numbers, I don't care if it takes hours."

"Shouldn't we wait until they enter our light weapons range Master?"

"No, their range is too low and I don't want to risk it. We may have to react and may not have time to do it."

"Yes, Master."

The first bolt flew away from a Ha`tak closely followed by the entire fleet's heavy guns, and immediately the Ha`taks started matching the drones speed. Hundreds of bolt travelled the distance to the enemy's positions and soon started finding their marks. It didn't take long for the aliens to react, as their drones broke formation and started heading in eight different directions. The Jaffa fleet could see them going up, up-right, right, down-right, down, down-left, left and up-left.

"They think fast!" said Rak`nor "Stay with the upper arm."

"Arm? Master"

"The drones heading up Hai`rak."

"Yes, Master."

As soon as the Jaffa Fleet changed course to intercept the drones heading up. They moved away form them while the other drones closed in, forcing the Jaffa to move away or risk an engagement. The drones continued to slowly encircle the FJN vessels, while the Jaffa again increased their speed to get away from the trap. In orbit many drones were re-entering their mothership's launch tubes.

"Master, I have telemetry from one of the Tel`taks. Alien drones are returning to their ships."

"How many?"

"Thousands!"

"They will try to cut us out."

"Master?"

"Those drones Hai`rak. They are trying to encircle us, while keeping away from our weapons range. And that fleet is recalling its drones, but still leaving thousands to protect the planet. Guessed what they are doing yet?"

He saw Hai`rak's stunned face, so he added, "They are going to try to cut us off. They'll force us to engage. An engagement we are not prepare to fight. Signal the Fleet. Full retreat. Just leave the Tel`taks. Tell them they won't be relived for at least three weeks."

"But Master!"

"NOW Hai`rak, and set a course that doesn't lead directly to our nearest colony. Just in case their sensors are good enough to pinpoint our trajectory."

Soon the FJN Fleet entered hyperspace, and set a misleading course that will take them to their nearest colony in 17 days.

**Dakara – Free Jaffa Nation Capitol**

**Council Meeting Hall**

**April 19, 2010**

The Capitol of Dakara, had been rebuild to the best of the Jaffa's abilities, after the destruction suffered by the Ori attack. The government buildings were now operational, but housing for the garrison troops was still lacking so the view from above was that of the main government compound, surrounded by buildings in different stages of construction and again surrounded by many, many tents. A few kilometers away from the new Capitol, they were finishing construction of a shipyard that was bound to keep the fleet deploy there in optimal conditions, without the need to move the vessels to more industrialized worlds.

After the retreat of the Jaffa Fleet three days ago, the council had ordered an investigation into the identity of the attackers and to develop a strategy to engage and defeat them. The members of the council were now hearing the report from the Head of the commissioned research group, a Jaffa named Yat'kin.

"We still have no contact with the colony of Nakgora and our Tel`taks report the arrival of what looks like transport ships that landed on the planet." said Yat'kin

"Have you been able to identify the aliens? master Yat'kin." asked Ka'lel a female council member

"I'm afraid not Mistress Ka'lel. We have requested information from our allies the Tok'ra and the Tau'ri. The Tok'ra said that they have never seen those ships designs, but that they know that the Goa`uld have been avoiding that area of space for more than a hundred years."

"What about the Tau`ri?"

"Master Teal'c thinks he saw the alien's main capital ship several years ago with the Tau'ri,"

"Indeed!" added Teal'c "It seems similar to a vessel encountered by the Prometheus, but I am not certain as I was not present at the moment."

"Ambassador Woolsey is on its way with information concerning that event." said Yat'kin "He should be here within the hour."

"Master Yat'kin. Have you analyzed the information sent by Rak`nor? Do you have any recommendations?" asked Bra'tak

"Yes Master Bra'tak. Our sensors were able to get good intelligence on the capabilities of the alien's vessels and we have good combat data on their drones and small capital ships. We still require more information on their escorts and main vessel, but if we take into account their mass and compare it to their small ship's shield strength. We can say that their escorts are less powerful than our Ha`taks, but their main capital ship is considerably superior." he took a deep breath, showing a concerned face, "That is only comparing shield strength, which gives us a good indication of their power output. The problem is the enormous amount drones each ship carries."

"How many."

"Our sensors detected a consistent number of drones coming from their escort. They have fifty two drone launchers and nine hundred and thirty six drones each. Their main warship has a hundred and fifty eight drone launchers, but eight thousand eight hundred and forty eight drones. Considerably more drones per launcher than their escorts." He turned to see the floor and then looked up, "I'm afraid we have nothing that can engage those odds single handedly. One on one our Ha`taks are superior to their escorts, but not if we take their drones into account."

"What do you suggest."

"We need a new Mothership. A ship designed from the ground up for space combat. A ship able to hold a fight even against an Ori warship, but our experience in ship design is very limited, and designing, testing, and building one, will take a lot of time. I suggest we gain the experience necessary to design a new ship, by upgrading our existing Ha`tak design."

"Is it possible?" asked Ka'lel

"Yes Mistress. As you all know the Ha`tak has a great deal of space devoted for troop transport. A big enough hangar space for forty eight gliders and at least a couple of Al`keshes, both of which had proved useless against this new alien threat and even the Ori. I know the Ori are no longer in this Galaxy, but their ships are a measure of our vessels ineffectiveness."

"You intend to use the available space to make our Ha`taks better?" asked Bra'tak

"Yes Master."

"In what way."

"Our shield design allows a relation of one to twenty five. That means that for every unit of power output of the reactor, the shield's energy matrix can hold twenty five. It means that we need one point of energy constantly being feed into the grid to keep a twenty five point strong shield. The Ha`tak is designed with capacitors that can bring up the shields immediately, without having to wait for a full charge directly from the reactor. As you know, if we use the reactor to directly charge the shield, the more energy there is in the shield matrix the more energy required just to keep it up, so it extends the time required to reach full power. That's why we use capacitors. They put the energy directly into the shield matrix and then we use the reactors at full power just to keep them up."

"Your point Master?"

"Simple. If we want our shield's to charge immediately we need twenty five points of capacity in our capacitors per point of reactor output. Every increase in capacitors only, can't be sustained by our actual reactors, so they will only be able to be used as backup. Every increase in reactor capacity only, will require our shield to be charge by direct feed. The only place big enough to install new reactors, are our hangars. They have enough space for two more reactors. That will increase power output from fifty to one hundred and fifty Peta watts. We will require to convert nearly eighty percent of our troop carrying capabilities to house the capacitors required to charge the shields immediately. This will allow our Ha`taks to resist the impact of a single Ori beam. Beams that as you all know were able to destroy our vessels with a single shot. However, this upgrade will greatly increase its survival against small weapons fire. To give an example. Three standard Ha`taks will be required to bring the shields down of an upgraded Ha`tak. Two will be unable to overcome the upgraded shields recharge capabilities."

"And you have an upgrade for our weapons systems as well?"

"Yes Master. However, upgrading the shield system is relatively simple as we'll be using existing reactor and capacitor designs, the challenge will be integrating them into the ship. The real problem will come with the offensive weapons, as we need to design one from scratch. Our small defensive staff cannons, proved effective at intercepting and destroying their drones, but the numbers employed proved lacking. We have enough space to increase our point defence cannons from forty eight to one hundred and ninety two. A four fold increase. The Heavy cannons however, while very powerful, are still lacking sufficient strength to be a threat to an Ori Warship or the expected strength of the new aliens main capital ship. They also require greater internal space to accommodate so we just can't add more weapons, without a heavy and difficult modification of the current design."

"We have the intention of designing a new cannon. The goal is to produce a new heavy staff cannon to replace the ones we currently have. It will have eight times the reaction chamber volume and twice the diameter. We'll be able to install two per arm instead of the current four. But we'll be increasing the combined fire power by four. Each individual unit will have forty Peta Joules per bolt compared to the five of the current design, an eight times increase in strength. Bottom line, We'll be increasing the fire power of our Ha`taks by four and our shield matrix and recharge rate by three."

"When can we expect this new design to initiate construction? and is it possible to upgrade our current vessels?" asked Bra'tak

"Newly built ships, will be upgraded by batches. The first batch will have the new capacitors and point defence cannons installed, but will still have a single reactor and the actual heavy staff cannons. The second batch will add the two new reactors, while the third batch will receive the new Heavy cannons. Now, all vessels currently deployed will only be upgraded to a batch one configuration, as the second and third batch modifications will be too expensive to implement."

"So we'll be losing our glider capacity?"

"Yes Master. There will still be space for the two Al`keshes as their hangars are too small for modification. But with the current performance of our gliders in space combat, I will change glider capacity for reactor power and shield strength any day."

"Indeed." added Teal'c

"Is there anything else you want to add Master Yat'kin?" asked Bra'tak

"Only that we'll commence preliminary studies for a new type of Mothership to replace the Ha`tak. But it will take many years."

"We understand. Still the upgraded Ha`tak looks promising. You are to be commended. That'll be all."

"Yes Master." He turned to the rest of the assembly and added with a nod before leaving, "Masters! Mistress!"

After a second thought Bra'tak added, "Master Yat'kin, I think it will be better if you stay. Ambassador Woolsey may have some information useful for you. Please take a sit.", he said pointing to an empty chair.

"Yes Master."

After Yat'kin seated, Teal'c addressed the councillors.

"Fleet Master Rak`nor has requested several hundred Tel`taks to start reconnaissance operations of systems beyond Nakgora. He also requests as many Ha`taks and Al`keshes as we can spare to reinforce Tyl'mah and to prepare for a counter attack."

"Master Bra'tak. Excuse my lack of knowledge in the matter as it is not my area of responsibility, but yours. Could you tell me, what is the situation of our Fleet? Do we have enough ships to spare?" asked Ka'lel

"Of course!" he said with a bow "After the war with the Ori, our Fleet situation is not very good. We have control of three hundred and seventy three planets, and only Four hundred and eleven Ha`taks to protect them. We also have nine hundred and sixty two Al`keshes and more than three thousand six hundred Tel`taks. The distance between our colonies is great, complicating matters even further. We have ships, that if dispatched today, will take nearly two years to reach Tyl'mah at maximum speed. We can certainly reinforce Rak`nor with sufficient number of Tel`taks, but Ha`taks and Al`keshes will be difficult to spare without seriously compromising the defence of our other colonies."

"Can't we build more?"

"That's also a problem. We have industrial capacity to build more than a hundred Ha`taks per year, but we are currently building twenty seven. The Goa`uld had enough human slaves to mine for resources and build the ships. We do not. We estimate a total Jaffa population of a little more than seven hundred million. We are self-sufficient in food production, but our mining operations are not enough to feed our shipyards. And we are still seventy percent dependant on the Tau'ri for Tretonin. We still have a long way to go, and our shipbuilding capacity will still be limited by our mining operations. We also need to find out the alien's capabilities, but the Goa`uld would not have bypass them if they were weak, and I don't believe that twenty seven Ha`taks per year will be enough. Even if they are upgraded."

"What can we do?"

"My first choice will be to ask the Tau`ri for help..." said Bra'tak

"NO! We must do this ourselves!" said U'kin a traditionalist council member "One month ago, before the attack by the aliens. We were struggling to keep the Jaffa united. There were dozens of worlds seeking to grow apart from the Free Jaffa Nation. This conflict has united us as never before."

"We'll still have to fight them. I don't know the problem in having the Tau'ri doing that at our sides." said Ka'lel

"You are friends of the Tau'ri," he said looking at Ka'lel, Bra'tak and Teal'c "but a great deal of Jaffa are not. We are warriors, and the constant remainder that we needed the Tau'ri to help us through many difficult situations, have cause a huge amount of jealousy towards them. We don't need them to solve our problems. We need to show the Galaxy and specially our own people, that we are capable of taking care of ourselves. Having the Tau'ri help us again will cause a great deal of dissent. Something we can't have. Not now that our ties as brothers are severely weaken."

"We have lost the colony of Nakgora. We have no contact with our people on the surface. They could have been wiped out for what we know, and you want us to reject help. Help from our allies." said Ka'lel

"Yes." he paused before continuing, "I have no quarrel with the Tau'ri. They have shown to be trustworthy. But our Nation is in shambles and we must first consider its needs. For all we know, we have lost a colony, but if we allow the Tau'ri to help, the alternative could be losing our Nation. If that happens. We'll find ourselves fighting wars with different Jaffa factions. Factions that hold the Tau'ri in contempt. We have a new enemy at our doorsteps. We can fight them alone. It may take years to defeat them or at least to force a stalemate, but it's the best chance we have of a truly united Free Jaffa Nation."

"There maybe nothing we can do for the people of Nakgora, but what about Tyl'mah and the colonies close to it." asked Ka'lel

"We evacuate them via stargate and reinforce our military garrison and space forces to the best of our abilities. We must gain intelligence on our enemy, but we must abandon all hopes of recapturing Nakgora. At least for the moment. We prepare ourselves for a defensive war, while we rally our people and rebuild our space forces, then we hit them and we hit them hard."

"It could be a wise strategy, but only because of our social standing." added Bra'tak

"Indeed, but we must not turn down help from the Tau'ri or the Tok'ra, when we can mask their participation." added Teal'c "It may be unwise to ask for direct military assistance, but we could still ask for intelligence and raw materials."

"Raw materials? And how do you intend to pay them with. Even if they had those resources. We have nothing the Tau'ri wants, and I don't think they are going to give us the millions of tonnes per year required to max out our industrial capacity for free." said U'kin

"They do want planets." said Bra'tak

"Indeed."

"You intend to give away our planets?" asked U'kin

"There are some of our planets that are far away and with relatively low populations and strategic value. The few thousand that live there can be easily relocated to another. Those planets, we could sell without too much loss and for a lot of gain." answered Bra'tak

"Masters, if I may interrupt." said Yat'kin receiving a nod from Bra'tak "We could sell human planets. Planets we don't have under our control. There are many with a few thousand people living in them." He saw Ka'lel's face and added, "No Mistress. I don't mean that we take them by force. I meant we buy the planet. We can pay their people a fortune that they won't be able to reject, then we can sell the planet to the Tau'ri for an exorbitant amount of resources."

"If they find out what we are doing. They can offer the same to those people and bypass us completely." said U'kin

"They are already doing that. We had been informed that Earth is offering the people of planets with low populations, the ones they are in contact with, the possibility of living on Earth in exchange of being allow a research installation on their planets. They are not being as bold as buying the planet for them, but we can see where this is going. I can't think of any human that will reject living on Earth, and the more people that leaves to live there, the more likely that the remaining ones will be unable to create a stable society, and will be forced by the circumstances to leave for Earth too. Finally leaving the planet in control of the Tau'ri. I just propose doing the same but faster. We offer them a fortune, for them to live on another planet. Then we sell the planet to the Tau'ri. We can even keep it, if it's a better quality world, and sell the low quality ones to the Tau'ri."

"It's an interesting proposal." said U'kin

"Indeed, but it depends on the Tau'ri accepting it and paying the exorbitant amount of resources you are suggesting. We should work on this and Master Bra'tak's proposal and see if we can convinced the Tau'ri."

A Jaffa entered the room and stood firm to attention. Bra'tak glanced at him and with a gesture of his head, gave him permission to speak.

"Ambassador Woolsey of the Tau'ri is here."

"Tell him we are ready to receive him."

The Jaffa left and a few seconds later, entered the room with Ambassador Woolsey.

Woolsey approached the councillors and looking to Teal'c he said, "Am I interrupting?"

"Of course not Ambassador Woolsey. We were expecting you. Please, you may address the council." said Teal'c making a gesture with his hand for him to move to the center of the room, which he did.

"I'm honored to be back councillors," he said while bowing, "I've come with information on this new alien threat."

"You have information regarding this aliens Ambassador Woolsey?" asked Bra'tak

"A lot. I brought all the information we have on them." answered Woolsey while showing a data crystal. "We were able to identify one of the alien vessels. The one they were using as center piece of their fleet. The design is identical to a ship encountered by the Prometheus several years ago. All the information regarding this encounter is in the data crystal."

"Do you know who they are?" asked Ka'lel

"We can't confirmed it, but we are almost a hundred percent sure. A star nearly five hundred light years beyond your Nakgora colony, coincides with the stargate address of the Aschen Confederation's Home world."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Four**

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Atlantis City Ship, Federation Capitol**

**Command and Control**

**April 21, 2010**

"Admiral!" said the communications officer

"Yes, son. What is it?"

"The Vice Admiral is ready to beam in."

"Go ahead then."

Seconds later, a blue flash illuminated the room, materializing Vice Admiral Samantha Carter. She turned to look around and walk directly to Admiral Hans Voss and stood to attention.

"Reporting as requested, Sir" she said while saluting.

"At ease, Sam. Please come with me." he said while heading towards his ready room

"Thank you, Sir."

"Is everything OK? You look tired."

"A little, Sir, but I'm fine."

"I can imagine, and that is one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you." They entered the Admiral's ready room, "Please Sam." he said while pulling a chair in front of his desk

"Thank you, Sir." she said while seating.

The Admiral moved around his desk and seated on his chair, and added, "You were promoted to Vice Admiral and given command of the First Fleet three weeks ago. Correct?

"Yes, Sir."

"I know I've put you into a lot of pressure lately, but I wanted to promote Commodore Caldwell to Rear Admiral and give him command of the First Battle Group, but that is something I'm not willing to do until we assign an Achilles vessels to the Pegasus detachment. You will keep handling the First Battle Group until we do that, but I'll take the pressure of the Second Battle Group from you. I'm promoting Commodore Ellis to Rear Admiral. He'll have command of that group."

"Thank you, Sir. New vessels being commission into the Second Battle Group is what takes most of my time."

"Great then." he said, while opening a folder, "You are aware that the Jaffa lost a colony to what we believed to be the Aschen. Right?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Well, the council convened to discuss this matter and have given us the go ahead for outpost deployment."

"I'm sorry Sir, but weren't we supposed to wait at least until January."

"They seem to have no major problems with the design. Earth outpost one has been in operation for nearly five months now, and the few problems they have encountered had already been corrected. The thing is that with the threat of the Aschen, the council wants to take security measures, and one of them is to start our colonization efforts, so that we are not completely dependant on Earth or Atlantis for the survival of our people. I don't believe the Aschen to be a problem for the near future as they are more than seventy thousand light years from Earth, but I prefer to have the ships working than idling in orbit."

"Yes, Sir. Me too."

"Also, our prototype hyperspace listening satellite is working properly, and the council wants to start deployment immediately. I want you, Sam, to commit eighty percent of the ships not deployed to Pegasus for outpost replication duties, and one ship for hyperspace listening satellite deployment. I want the rest as fast response units to answer any contingencies."

"Yes, Sir."

"Also, we need intel on the Aschen. They have already shown the ability of detecting Jaffa cloaked ships. I know our cloaks are far more advanced, but I don't want unnecessary risks. We need to know where their planets are and the amount of forces they are fielding. Unless the Jaffa makes a call to our Alliance commitments, we are not seeking a war with the Aschen and I don't want them to feel threaten by detecting and identifying a Federation vessel. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sir, of course."

"Assign a group to this task."

"Yes, Sir."

"Do you have someone in mind?"

"Commodore Hara."

"Yes, Tameichi is a good call."

"Yes Sir. I don't see any problems. The Achilles class passive sensors are very powerful. He should be able to gather intel from very long ranges."

"I believe that too Sam, but be prepared just in case. Just in case."

"Yes Sir."

**Wolf 359 – 7.8 light years from Earth**

**TFS-20 Andromeda – Achilles class vessel**

**Bridge**

**May 14, 2010**

The Andromeda had just jump in system and was approaching the north polar region of the star.

Capitan Jose Garcia, former Captain of the Spanish Navy's LHD Juan Carlos I, was seating in his command chair. He was looking at his sensor's officer who seemed very interested in the scan results.

"What is it Robert. You seem to have found gold."

He straighten up and answered, "Oh, no Sir. Its just that I'm a Star Trek fan."

"And?"

"And I see no remains from the Federation battle with the Borg cube." he joked.

The Captain chuckled, "Anything interesting then?"

"No, Sir. I was expecting at least one M class planet, but it seems our luck is not that good. Sensors are reading Wolf 359 at ten percent the mass of our sun. There is a planetoid orbiting it, which is in a gravitational lock. No life detected."

"OK then." said the captain turning to his helm officer, "Hold Position at four hundred Mega meters form Wolf 359's north pole." he then turned to his communications officer, and added, "Order the replication team to commence deployment operations."

"Yes, Sir." answered both officers.

The Andromeda soon reached its position above Wolf 359. The external replication unit, started working and in less than an hour had replicated a nearly 100 meters in diameter sphere. A few minutes later, time which the teams used to verified that the replication was executed successfully, the tractor beam of the Andromeda locked to the sphere and positioned it a few hundred meters in front of its bow."

"Activate the HLS." said the Captain referring to the Hyperspace Listening Satellite.

"Satellite active and acknowledging systems in the green, Sir."

"Prepare for endo subspace-hyperspace insertion."

"Ready, Sir."

"Proceed!"

The Andromeda activated its hyperspace vortex generator without activating its engines. The ship held still in front of the vortex. The tendrils of the hyperspace opening reaching out in both direction, but soon stabilized into a whirlpool of blue energy.

"Sir the vortex is stable."

"Good, tractor the HLS into it."

The Andromeda was using nearly a quarter of its power to keep the vortex opened and stable, and now started pushing the satellite into it. The HLS was stabilized at the center of the hyperspace opening.

"Captain! I believe the satellite is fixed at its position." said Robert

"Believe? Or are you sure?"

"Sorry, Sir. The satellite is fixed at the designated position."

"OK. Activate temporal shielding and prepare to collapse the vortex as soon as it's active." said the Captain half smiling.

The HLS activated its temporal shielding, time inside the dilation bubble crawled to a halt. In terms of time passed this had no meaning, but the reality of space time physics dictate that objects approaching light speed had their time reduce almost to a crawl. So in short, if the time was crawling then the matter was travelling very very fast. This had the effect of making the HLS almost pure energy, even though from an outside view, you'll still be able to see it. The satellite in this state was able to almost meld with the surrounding vortex, allowing it to neither advance nor retreat from its current position.

"Dilation field active, shutting down the vortex."

The vortex collapsed from both sides into the HLS. The satellite immediately shut its dilation filed and activated its modulated shields. First resisting the impact of the closure, and then modulating its shield's harmonics to pass through to the intermediate layer.

"Sir. I'm receiving telemetry from the HLS. The satellite has deactivated its dilation field and modulated through to the intermediate layer and is safely anchor to Wolf 359's gravitational pull."

"Good. Is it working properly?"

"All green. Sir."

"Great, one ready three hundred and forty seven to go."

The range of the HLS depended mostly on the hyperspace opening. But small vortexes could easily be detected at more than 5,000 light years, so a total of 348 HLS were to be deploy at a distance of 5,000 light years from each other to cover all the Galaxy with heavy redundancy, but deployed on a single plane, because the Galaxy was on average only 1,000 light years thick.

"At this rate we just need half a year, so don't worry it'll be a pleasure cruise." said the captain half joking.

"Yes Sir. I'll only worry when we reach the Delta quadrant." said Robert

"What? More Veorg."

"Borg Sir, and yes a lot."

They laughed.

**Hyperspace – Aschen Confederation Space**

**Reinforced 5th Group - 2nd Battle Group - 1st Fleet**

**TFS-26 Athena – Achilles class**

**Flag Bridge**

**May 18, 2010**

The TFS-26 Athena was streaming through hyperspace, escorted by four other Achilles class vessels. The TFS-23 Argonaut, TFS-24 Ariadne, TFS-25 Artemis, all from the 5th Group, and reinforced by the 6th Group's TFS-28 Bellerophon. All vessels were proceeding under cloak and with very advanced ECM at full power.

Inside the Flag Bridge of the Athena was Commodore Tameichi Hara. He was seated in his command chair, watching a holographic representation of the Galaxy, that was zoomed at 70,000 light years from Earth, on the outer rim areas of the Galaxy. There were six stars highlighted, 5 in red and 1 in yellow. The one in yellow represented the contested Nakgora colony. The other five were those identified as Aschen planets by a previous reconnaissance mission, one that had followed Aschen vessels under cloak, while they were coming and going between planets. That mission had not been allowed to enter normal space inside Aschen star systems, but the one being commanded by Commodore Hara was.

The number of Aschen ships coming and going in different routes could easily identify the most important planets. The one they already knew as being their Home World, was the one with the largest amount of traffic.

"Give me a link to the fleet." said Hara to his communications officer.

"Link established, Sir."

"All vessels this is Fifth Group Actual. You have all been assigned a star system to reconnoiter. Proceed with the mission, but remember the rules of engagement. At the faintest sign of being detected, you are to retreat immediately, and proceed into an exit vector completely opposite to Terran Federation space. As soon as you complete your mission, you'll retreat and wait in the designated hyperspace coordinates as backup, until all vessels have completed their assignments. That is all, Command out."

Immediately all vessels changed course to their designated star systems and accelerate their hyperspace engines. The Athena headed for the Aschen Home World and entered normal space at the very edge of the system, behind an errant big asteroid, to mask its hyperspace opening.

"Sensors, What we've got?"

"Sir, we are detecting heavy sensor scans from multiple sources. Thousand plus ships around the planet. The majority in Geostationary orbits. Plus several massive Stations. At this range it will be difficult to identify, Sir, but with this heavy scanning I wouldn't risk approaching closer than ten Giga meters."

"Helm, approach to that range, but from the Sun. We'll use their star radiation to play against their sensors."

"Yes, Sir."

It took several minutes for the Athena to reach that position. Once there the sensor officer gave its new report."

"Sir, I'm relaying the image from sensors to the holographic display."

Soon the holographic representation of the planet could be seen. There were several Stations shaped like a star. Eight arms extended from the center of the installation, each a third of the total diameter. The stations were flat and pointing outward from the planet, presenting the greatest area towards space.

"Sir those stations are five thousand nine hundred and four meters in diameter. The planet is blocking the ones behind it, but if they follow the same pattern, there are a total of fourteen. They are emitting a huge power output and if I'm reading this correctly they are shielding the planet."

"Confirm that."

"I can't, Sir. Not without active sensors, but very little non visual data is coming from the surface, so I can guess that they are."

"So we'll be unable to get intel from the surface?"

"Only visual, Sir, but at this ranges it will be minimal."

"Com! Tell the CAG that I want all fighters to be launched under cloak. They are to form an umbrella one hundred Mega meters in diameter from the center of the Athena. They are to link their passive sensors to us."

"Yes, Sir."

He turned to the XO, "Lieutenant Commander, are you following me?"

"I guess I do Sir. You want to use interferometry?"

"Exactly!" he turned to see the sensor officer,"Lieutenant. How much time to get a full planetary and orbital scan?"

"With their rotational period, fourteen hours, Sir."

"OK. Lieutenant Commander inform me of any development." he activated his internal communications device. "Captain, you have the con. I'll be in my quarters." he said and left the Flag Bridge.

"Yes, Sir." answered the captain from the Bridge.

Fourteen hours later …

The Commodore entered the Flag Bridge.

"Lieutenant Commander. Is the scan ready?"

"Yes, Sir. We are compiling the data now, It'll be ready in a minute."

The Commodore turned to the Communications Officer, "Order the CAG to recall all fighters." he then turned to the Helm Officer. "Lieutenant. As soon as the fighters are on board, get us where we can enter hyperspace without detection and then proceed to the rendezvous point."

"Yes, Sir." answered both officers.

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Atlantis City Ship, Federation Capitol**

**Command and Control**

**One hour and forty five minutes later**

Admiral Voss and Vice Admiral Carter stood looking to an empty space of the command center, just before a blue beam materialized Commodore Hara.

"Tameichi." said the Admiral, while the Commodore saluted and stood to attention.

The Admiral saluted back, "At ease Commodore. Let's go to my ready room."

The three of them went to the Admiral's ready room and seated.

"You are difficult to read Commodore. What news do you bring?"

"Not good Sir. The Jaffa haven't got a chance against them without our help."

"That bad, eh? What are we looking at."

He opened his file and read, "The Aschen Homeworld is protected by fourteen massive space stations, with sufficient power output to shield the entire planet. We were able, through interferometry to get very detail imaging of the planet and orbit below the space stations. We can't give exact population numbers as the other four planets, but we estimate a population in excess of ten billion. They have the majority of their fleet below the planetary shield. We were able to identify their ship classes thanks to intercepted transmissions. They have a total of 246 Command Space Vessels or CSVs, 6,642 Escort Space Vessels or ESVs, and 2,214 Scout Space Vessels or SSVs. We estimate nearly twelve million drones deployed on their fleet and Space Stations."

The Admiral looked at Tameichi with a very calm face, "That bad, eh?"

"Yes, Sir. The good news is that their other planets are nowhere near those numbers." He turned his head towards the report and continued reading, "In order of population density, the second planet has a total of three hundred and thirty million people, no space stations, 8 CSVs, 200 ESVs and 72 SSVs. The third planet has two hundred and twenty million people, again no space stations, 5 CSVs, 135 ESVs and 45 SSVs. Their fourth planet has one hundred and seventy million people, no space stations, 4 CSVs, 108 ESVs, and 36 SSVs, While the last planet, the one we know as Volia, has sixty million people, no space stations, 2 CSVs, 54 ESVs and 18 SSVs."

"We need to get this intel to the Jaffa, Sir." said Carter

"I agree." said Tameichi

"Hmm." he looked to Tameichi, "What's the speed of their vessels."

"The military vessels found in hyperspace by last week's reconnaissance mission, were moving at a standard speed of three point forty two light years per hour, slightly slower than a Jaffa Ha'tak. As you know the Prometheus was intercepted by a CSV at two hundred and fifty light years from Earth, nearly two years and four months after first contact with the Aschen. This makes the speed consistent with what we are looking. If they decide to come for us it'll take them almost two and a half years, to reach us. Our nearest planet is nearly two thousand light years from them and we only have a reconnaissance satellite deployed there, but the Jaffa have several populated planets just a couple of months of travel, with Tyl'mah just a few weeks away."

He turned to look at Carter, "Release the information to the Jaffa and Tok'ra, and ask the Jaffa if they need help defending Tyl'mah. Either way I want a constant patrol in that border, and have the Andromeda deploy at least three HLSs in the designated coordinates in that area of space, first. Then have it resume its mission close to our space."

"Yes, Sir." said Carter

**Fleet staging area**

**20 Light Years from Olesia – Pegasus Galaxy**

**June 24, 2010**

A hyperspace window opened and an Asgard Beliskner class Capital ship entered the Fleet's staging area in deep space. The vessel slowly entered formation along the concentration of Terran Federation and Asgard Capital ships. The TFS-10 Achilles, the first Achilles class vessel produced was leading the formation, escorted by six of the seven remaining Upgraded Daedalus class vessels and Four Asgard Beliskner class Capital ships.

"Sir, the last Asgard vessel in this Galaxy, has just arrived. We can't delay any longer. The Odyssey is reporting that the Wraith are conducting massive culling operations in Olesia. We need to move now, or there'll be nothing left to defend." said Lt Commander Anya Levonavna, the Achilles XO.

"I know Lt. Commander, but I also know that the Wraith are up to something, They wouldn't put so many ships in one system for us to destroy, unless they have thousands more to spare or unless the are planning something, and that something is what worries me. Let's give Vice Admiral Carter a little more time, so that we can even up the odds." said Rear Admiral Caldwell

"Sir, With all due respect. They have a quarter of a million darts and more than a thousand cruisers. One thousand three hundred and twenty four to be precise and one Hive ship. Every minute we delay will cost thousands of lives if not hundreds of thousand. The SAMs we deployed to the Olesians will not last long, and the ground forces are already being engaged by drones. It'll be a massacre. The fast response ships are still more than fifteen minutes away, and by the time the Vice Admiral gathers the rest of the ships it'll be too late. We need them to focus on us. We need to make them redeploy their darts against us to give a breathing room to the people on the ground."

Caldwell sighted, "Your assessment of the situation is correct Anya, but the consequences of losing will be worse, and not even the Achilles has the power the engage those odds. No matter how advanced it is."

"Sir, we don't need to engage them head on, we just need to cause sufficient damage to their forces, to make them redeploy their darts, or to escape. If our ships start being compromised we order them to retreat, recharge their shields, and then re-engage. We use hit and run tactics, until we deplete their forces, or they run."

"Believe me, I have no intentions on facing them head on," he sighted again, "but you are right. We can't delay any longer. Signal the Fleet. We jump immediately."

The eleven ship strong Fleet cloaked and jumped to hyperspace. A few seconds later they were nearing the outskirts of the system.

"Lt. Commander. A hundred to one to the dilation field if you please."

"Yes, Sir." she said while activating the Flag bridge dilation field in a relation of one hundred seconds inside for every second outside. Every Achilles class vessel was equipped with a global Dilation field emitter, but the Flag bridge of every ship of the class, had its own internal dilation field for command purposes, as it was easier to identify patterns in the enemy's tactics and relay orders for fleet redeployment and engagement, while the world outside was crawling.

Immediately, the images on the holographic display, changed from a fast moving Fleet, to an almost static one.

"Good, I love this." He said smiling, "Order the Odyssey to de-cloak, and have all ships transition behind it, but have all vessels enter systems through the Daedalus and Apollo's vortexes. The Wraith know those three ships, let's not spoil the surprise."

"Yes, Sir."

The Odyssey de-cloaked, and soon two vortexes opened behind it, and then closed. The Daedalus and the Apollo de-cloaked flanking it.

"Order the Odyssey, Daedalus and Apollo to fire drones immediately. Have the Sun Tzu to position itself to the left flank of the enemy fleet and have it escorted by a Beliskner. Get the George Hammond and another Beliskner to the right flank and have the Musashi, Ark Royal and the remaining two Asgard ships to stay with the Odyssey's group. Take us below their Fleet and close to the planet. We'll deploy our fighters to help the defenders, and then we'll rejoin the fleet."

"Yes, Sir."

The three de-cloaked ships started firing twenty drones per second each. The ancient weapons started to approach the Wraith lines as the enemy Fleet repositioned itself to meet the onslaught. Darts started accelerating towards the three human vessels, followed closely by the Cruisers. The Hive ship and more than two hundred cruisers and thousands of darts stayed in orbit facing the human attack.

For a few seconds, while the left and right flank forces were repositioning and the Achilles was heading for the planet, the drones of three Upgraded Daedalus ships were keeping the Wraith at bay, destroying the spearhead of the advance, but soon the approaching darts were beginning to heavily outnumber the drones being launch.

"Order all ships to de-cloak and engage, and have them follow a fighting withdrawal strategy. Don't let our ships be overwhelmed. If their shields drop below thirty percent, have them withdraw to hyperspace to recharge and then return to fight again."

"Yes, Sir."

Eight vessels de-cloaked, four Beliskners and four Upgraded Daedalus, this last ones started firing drones, adding eighty drones per second to the attack. More than a hundred Wraith darts were being destroyed every second, but with a quarter of a million deployed, it would take nearly half an hour to destroy them all. Time they didn't have as the enemy fighters were nearing their positions, followed closely by more than a thousand cruisers.

A few seconds later, a significant portion of the Wraith Fleet's main body, detached and headed for the two units of the left flank, while the remainder kept pressing the attack on the main Fleet deployment, and left the right flank completely unengaged.

Meanwhile, the Achilles had reached orbit, behind the Hive ship and its escorts.

"Launch all fighters. Once they clear the skies of Olesia, have them cloak and rejoin the main formation. If they have drones left, tell them they are to be used for precision strikes on Wraith cruisers. If they don't, then have them join the fray against the darts."

"Yes, Sir. What about the left flank. They are soon to be overwhelmed by Wraith forces."

"They have their orders. Fight in withdrawal and retreat if the position becomes unsustainable. Once our fighters are launched, we'll create a diversion to confuse the Wraith, while we reposition ourselves to help them."

"Yes, Sir."

Soon the five hundred and twelve SF-1 'Myrmidon' Space Superiority Fighters had been launched and were dropping on the unsuspecting Wraith darts culling the planet below. At the same time, the Achilles turned around to face the Hive ship and its escorts.

"OK people, prepare yourself, because this could get a little bumpy." said Caldwell to the crew, he then turned to the Lt. Commander, "As soon as we de-cloak, fire the main gun against the Hive ship, and each of the secondary fusion beams to a cruiser. Do not recharge the guns, use only the energy stored in their capacitors. Leave half the power to the shields and the rest for point defences and drones. We stay de-cloaked only for two seconds, we'll then cloak again and reposition towards the left flank. Have all point defence cannons fire into the closest darts, and then use the drones launched to keep them guessing about our position."

"Yes, Sir."

"De-cloak!"

The Achilles de-cloaked, without its fighter escort, and alone, against a Hive ship and more than two hundred cruisers and nearly fifty thousand darts. Achilles, the leader of the Myrmidons, threw away its concealing mantle and faced its enemy without fear. His famous spear, which inflicted panic into its ancient enemies, was reborn in the form of a bow mounted Fusion Beam Cannon and was ready to smite its enemies for the first time.

"FIRE!"

The bow brightened like a neutron star, and from it, erupted an almost seventy meter in diameter bright blue beam, which headed for the Hive ship, simultaneously, the eight secondary fusion beam cannons slashed against a similar number of cruisers, while the point defence pulse cannons, eliminated any nearby darts. The main beam struck the Hive ship in a slashing strike, that went from stern to bow. The three point two Exa Joules of energy discharged in the two second attack, was enough to disintegrate the port side of the Hive ship, and release a huge amount of fusion energy into the insides of the vessel, expanding with such a force, that it completely vaporized a great portion of internals, creating massive secondary explosions that disintegrated the ship, taking with it some cruisers that were nearby.

The secondary beams, destroyed eight cruisers that were in position to threaten the Achilles, while the point defences intercepted weapons fire and nearby darts, allowing the human ship to cloak again.

The darts headed at maximum speed to the last know position of the Achilles, but were intercepted by more than three hundred drones, which caused sufficient mayhem and confusion into the darts ranks, that allowed the ship to escape undetected, and heading to support the left flank.

"God!" said Anya

"Are you turning religious Lt. Commander?" asked Caldwell

"No. As a matter of fact, I'm not, but there isn't a better word to describe the power of the Main Cannon."

"Yes you are right. Its very different to look at the cannon with numbers, than to do it with your eyes, and those secondary beams are more than eye catching too."

"Yes, If I'd known, I would have recommended to stay a little longer."

Caldwell laughed, "No. The darts were too close, and those numbers equipped with fusion warheads can easily destroy several Achilles class vessels. Better not risk it."

**Olesian Capitol**

**That same time...**

The Olesians had received a much better Terran Federation controlled surface to air missile complement, because it was the most heavily populated planet in the Pegasus Galaxy, but it wasn't making a difference. All the MIM-23 K/J Improved Hawks had been launched already. They claimed more than a hundred darts, but with the numbers of wrath fighters in the sky, that was irrelevant. The shoulder launched SA-7s, Mistrals, Stingers and SA-14s, were still being launched and claiming darts, but they were also a nuisance.

The Olesian Capitol, was the most heavily populated city in the planet, and was the main battle ground for the defenders, and the main culling ground for the Wraith.

It was a complete urban fighting nightmare, for the wraith that is. Terran Federation Snipers, were positioned in well covered location, throughout every type of building. Drones were being hit all over the city, allowing the MANPADS units to keep Wraith culling at bay. While the ground forces were giving the Wraith drones a beating, the situation on the air was completely different. Having expended the only relatively long range weapons, the shoulder mounted missiles, were barely denting the huge number of darts, and missiles were running low fast.

Surface to air missile contrails were seen all over the city. The situation was becoming more and more dire, as more darts landed drones, while others culled civilians and a few units that let their guards down.

Thousands of darts, were starting to fly unopposed above the city, when the defenders were able to see hundreds of bright yellow dots approaching at very high speeds. In an instant, hundreds of darts ceased to exit. many took evasive actions, only to be counter guessed by the incoming Terran drones. The sky was filled with exploding darts and approaching drones. At last, help had arrived.

"Yiiijjjaaaaaa! Come on you fucking Argie, I'll bet you the Falklands that I take more darts than you." said Morton 'Cookie' Cook

"You can't bet what its not yours Brit, and its Malvinas for you Cookie, but still, you don't stand a chance." said Zeke while performing a rolling manoeuvre above Cookie's fighter, and releasing two pre-charged drones into the Wraith's formations. "I'll show you, once and for all, why we were able to kick your fleets asses with obsolete aircraft. Skill Cookie, pure skill."

"Cut the chatter you two, this is not a competition, and Zeke! It's your turn to be wingman. You are to stay with Cookie as a shadow, is that clear?" said Lt. Sarah Reynolds

"Yes Ma'am."

As every member of the crew had pilot training downloaded on their minds, it was common to alternate positions on same ranking officers. This time was Zeke's turn to cover Cookie.

"Oh, come on Sarah. We are not even in the fighters, and those darts don't stand a chance against the Myrmidon. Let us loose, I promise we'll kick some butt." said Cookie

"This is not a Democracy. I gave you an order, Ensign."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Why do I have to get two hotshot ensigns in the same unit? You two are lucky I'm your friend or I would have had your asses nail to the wall of the Achilles flight roster. Now, check your formation. Oh! And before I forget. The Malvinas or Falklands, are neither Argentinian nor British. They are Terran Federation. Like the two of you. So, quit playing around."

"Yes Ma'am." said both in unison.

"OK. Now, lets give the people of Olesia a sight to remember."

**Space - Olesian system**

**Combined Fleet left flank**

The Sun Tzu was racing away from the Wraith's darts and cruisers, closely followed by an Asgard Beliskner. They were both performing evasive actions to throw away the aim of the Wraith cruisers, that were at the maximum firing range of their weapons, while the Sun Tzu's drones and point defences were in heavy use against the approaching darts. The Beliskner on the other hand, had only a few point defence plasma cannon, that were also firing against them. The Asgard main strategy, was an overwhelming attack by its forward plasma cannon, and the use of transporter emitters, both strategies left useless by the Wraith transporter jamming signals, and their reliance on huge number of darts, forcing the Asgard ship to relay on the Sun Tzu for point defence coverage.

The Asgard ship was covering the human vessel, forcing the wraith to detonate their darts in it, thus allowing the Sun Tzu, to divert more energy to drone launching, while the Asgard devoted their entire output for shield strength.

The Achilles was approaching under cloak, near the main left flank wraith forces, and wasn't allow to de-cloaked for fear of being overwhelmed, by the huge number of darts and cruisers heading towards the Combined Fleet's left flank units.

"Sir, Wraith cruisers from the Hive ship group, are entering hyperspace." said the sensor officer

"They must be heading for the left flank. I guess they'll try to enter system ahead of them, and cut them off." said Caldwell, but the holographic display showed a completely different set of deployment. The Wraith cruisers, started forming a staggered sphere from the center of the system to the outer areas but in hyperspace. As soon as they recovered their darts, more cruisers from the Hive's group were doing the same. Increasing the number of ships in hyperspace.

On the left flank the Beliskner was taking heavy shield damage, by the mounting fusion detonations, and was reaching a point were it will have to disengage.

"Sir the Asgard Beliskner is about to leave for hyperspace, They report their shields at twenty eight percent."

"Tell them to cloak before doing that, or they will get a heavy reception in hyperspace, no matter the speed of their hyper-drives, the shock waves will kill them before they are able to move too far."

"Yes Sir, transmitting."

The Beliskner cloaked and immediately opened a hyperspace window. The closest hyperspace deployed Wraith cruiser to the opened vortex, detonated its full internal complement of fusion warhead equipped darts, creating a massive hyperspace explosion and shock wave, that hit the transitioning Asgard Vessel with full force, leaving millions of golf ball sized pieces.

"Oh God!" said Anya

"Well, look at the bright side of it. We now know how they were able to capture ancient Aurora class warships. They couldn't retreat, and were overwhelmed by huge numbers in normal space, until their shields failed and were boarded." Said Caldwell, with a worried look on his face. "We are in trouble and the Sun Tzu's situation is worse." He thought for a moment in the relative safety of the dilation field, and added. "We need time for reinforcements to arrive, we'll concentrate our forces on a single block. Signal all ships to head for the Odyssey's group."

"What about the Sun Tzu, Sir? If they head for the main group, they'll be cut off by the approaching darts and cruisers. They are very close of being in the middle of both groups. Also, the Wraith ships in hyperspace, are matching the location of our units in normal space. They can either cut our exit, or jump us from behind."

"I know Lt. Commander. I'm watching the same holographic display as you are."

"It's my duty to inform you, Sir."

"I know Anya, I know." he sighted, "Tell the Sun Tzu, to head for the Odyssey, but on a parabolic course, that way they won't engage the Wraith's middle forces, and order the Odyssey group to head for the Sun Tzu on the same course."

"Transmitting, but they are not going to reach them, and neither are we."

"That's the only thing we can do. Let's hope for the best."

The Sun Tzu was hammered by a multitude of fusion warhead equipped darts, the drones and rail guns were doing their jobs, but the numbers were against them. The shields were feeling the strain, and the reactors were unable to keep up, even though they were exceeding their specified safety limits. Soon the shield's level had reached a critical fifteen percent, and every blast was starting to overload secondary relays, igniting many fires inside the ship.

"Sir, Captain Yaccarini reports that the Sun Tzu's shields are almost gone. He's requesting orders."

"On screen."

The main screen of the Achilles Battle Bride, started showing the images of the Battle Bridge of the Sun Tzu. The secondary bridges added to the upgraded Daedalus, were not as advance as the Achilles, but were sturdy enough to resist heavy damage, and while the situation on the Sun Tzu's bridge was probably different, the Battle bridge was showing no damage.

"Rear Admiral. Our situation is desperate, our shields are almost down. Do you want me to try to escape via hyperspace?"

"No Captain. There are Wraith ships covering your present position. You will be destroy."

"I know Sir, but I prefer that, than to order a self destruct, and we won't risk the ship falling into Wraith's hands."

"It's a risk we'll have to take. Our forces are on approach. We just have to hold for a few more minutes. Prepare your crew for boarding action."

"Yes, Sir." he paused for a moment before adding. "If we are not boarded, but destroyed. It's been an honor Steven."

"The honor is mine Pietro, but I'm positive you are going to be boarded. Your ship is isolated, the Wraith won't pass up this opportunity. Hold the ship. We are on our way..." The Rear Admiral, wasn't able to finish, as the Sun Tzu's shield failed, having its transmitters fried by the thermonuclear explosion.

A dart made a kamikaze run into the drone launcher, silencing it, while opening a portion of the hull into space. A second one detonated inside it, breaking the ship in half. Three other darts struck and detonated on the starboard hangar, shredding it to pieces. The Sun Tzu lost power, as the first strike hit the drone launcher near the GENFR reactor, and the ship was broken in half precisely there. The darts that hit the hangar, caused such strong forces on the ship, that many systems stopped working, including the Naquada Reactor's relays, silencing the rail guns completely. Thankfully the inertial dampening systems, were able to stop the ship from tumbling before they too failed, or the centrifugal forces could have made a nightmare for the crew inside.

Several seconds later, a Wraith cruiser latched itself into the Sun Tzu's dorsal area, and extended several connecting tubes into the human ship. From the outside, it seemed that nothing was happening, but the tubes cut through the ships armor and into internal corridors, pouring hundreds of Wraith drones inside, in an effort to capture it. The crew of the Sun Tzu, will soon be overwhelmed by huge number of drones.

The Wraith fleet that moments ago was chasing the Sun Tzu, left some units to defend it, and turned to face the already engaged main Fleet's elements, as to prevent any interference of the boarding action. Unbeknownst to them of the approaching Achilles.

"Yes Lieutenant, I want our ventral side to the Sun Tzu's ventral." said Caldwell while turning to see Anya "Are our boarding teams ready?"

"Yes, Sir, and we are ready to extend our shields to cover the Sun Tzu as soon as we are in position."

"Good, launch our boarding party when that cruiser gets destroyed."

"Yes, Sir."

The Achilles, approached under cloak, and positioned itself on the ventral area of the Sun Tzu, opposite to where the Wraith cruiser was latched. As soon as it reached a stable position, it extended its shield to cover the crippled vessel, and launched a barrage of drones from its dorsal launcher, that went through the sides of the Upgraded Daedalus, to hit the Wraith cruiser with tremendous force. The explosion of the ship, was washed away by the shields of the Achilles, one of the few vessels that were able to keep them up while being cloak.

Immediately, the ship slashed against the closest Wraith ships with full force. The explosion of the cruiser, joined by plasma weapon fire from nearby cruisers and darts, kept the cloak of the Achilles shimmering, marking the location of the human vessel, but still, they were unable to see what was happening inside it.

"Sir, our transports have left the ship, and are heading for the Sun Tzu's port hangar, shall we activate our external dilation field?"

"Yes Lieutenant Commander, but give me full power to the jammers. I don't want any communications from wraith units to get passed us."

"Its done, Sir."

The Achilles has projected an external dilation field, around both ships. All units inside would be living years for every second outside. The entire battle field was frozen in time, but of those units battling inside the Sun Tzu, while two approaching transports, were entering its port hangar.

"..., so lets show the Wraith who they are dealing with. Lieutenant Reynolds, take your team to the hyper-drive room and don't let the Wraith get in love with it. We'll take the ship back from them. OK Spartans, give them hell. GO, GO, GO." said Captain John '117' Haverson

Terran Federation Tier 3 Shock troopers, disembarked from the transports under cloak, and headed for several access points, and into the ship. Lt. Reynolds team was rushing through the access corridors that led into the hyper-drive room.

"Why the hell is the Captain calling us Spartans? Did he just watched 300 and got inspired?" asked Lt. Reynolds

"Oh! Sarah. You really need to get a life."

"Watch your mouth Cookie."

"No, really Lieutenant, if you have to ask, then you don't even know why the Captain's call sign is 117."

"And you do?"

"Every Halo fan knows, so obviously, I know. John 117 is the primary character of the Halo game, and is part of enhanced human soldiers called Spartans, which by the way, use very advanced combat armor exoskeletons, very similar in look to what we are using."

"OK, now you got it wrong Cookie." added Zeke

"Oh yeah, in what way Argie."

"I'm not too much of a Halo fan, but my younger brother is, and he happens to be in Atlantis, under direct orders from Dr. McKay. He always says that a single Tier 3 CAES (Combat Armor Exo Skeleton) equipped trooper, could in theory wipe out a full division of Mjolnir Mk VI equipped Spartans."

"Naaaahhh!"

Zeke chuckled, "That was also my expression when he told me, but he says that a Spartan armor power output doesn't exceed Ten Mega watts, while our CAESs run at twelve Giga watts. That's more than a thousand times the power output of a Spartan armor, and if you add our advance shields system, our naquada-trinium-carbon armor and our ..."

"OK that's enough. We are almost there." said Sarah, while activating her CAES mind interface, and releasing the security lock from the hyperspace room port side door. The door opened, and several Wraith turned immediately in combat stance, to find an empty corridor. Seconds later the sound of broken necks could be hear inside the room, while the 5 Wraiths inside, crumbled to the floor. The two Federation technicians that were being interrogated, were half panicking with a confused face, before Sarah de-cloaked in front of them.

"Calm down. I'm Lieutenant Sarah Reynolds of the Achilles. We are here to rescue you. Please proceed for the port hangar and into the shuttles. The area is clear of Wraith."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Sarah cloaked herself again, and proceeded to instruct her team.

"Zeke, Cookie, you are with me, the rest secure the hyper-drive and its adjacent corridors. Lets go."

"Where are we going LT?" asked Zeke

"There are several units pined down in the main corridor that leads to the destroyed starboard hangar." said Sarah, while checking her interface that was linked to the Achilles advance sensors, "There are seven crew men that are barely holding. They are currently engaging four Wraith drones, but there are nearly fifty heading their way, so lets move fast. The Captain wants us to retrieve them, and take care of the Wraith heading their way, while they secure the rest of the ship."

"How bizarre is this. We have a copy of our minds fighting in a fighter over Olesia, and we are here inside CAESs fighting Wraith drones in a boarding action."

"Save your thoughts for later Cookie. Lets concentrate on the task at hand. I'll take care of the crew members, while you two take care of the approaching drones."

"Can we have our bet now Sarah."

She sighted, "Please grow up." she stormed ahead through the corridor an into the direction of the stranded crew men, while Zeke and Cookie turned left on the next corridor and headed for the approaching drones, the first just a few meters away from them, and all hell broke lose."

"OK, Argie. It's just the two of us now. Lets settle this." he said while extending his two forearm equipped short blades, and charging towards the leading Wraith. Before he could stab it, a plasma pulse struck it square in the head, followed by another that took out the second approaching Wraith.

"Cheater, I though we were making this in a stealthy way."

"You never specified the rules of engagement, other than who takes out more. Two - zero." answered Zeke, while passing Cookie under cloak to charge ahead, "For Argentina!"

"You piece of shit. Come back here." he said laughing his lungs out and running after him.

The two of them charged forward, showing the Wraith the abysmal difference in technology they possessed.

The Wraith learned their lesson fast, and stop their advance, while concentrating fire on the entire corridor, hitting both Terran fighters, who fought back with increase ferocity, but were forced to de-cloak to be able to direct more energy into the shields, as keeping both the shields and cloak up, was energy intensive. Two white silver silhouettes materialized in front of the Wraith entourage. The human cloaking shields were off, but their chameleon body suit was not, and immediately adapted to their surroundings, complicating matters for Wraith aiming.

It took a few minutes for the two Terran shock troopers to almost wipe out the Wraith advance. Only a few remained, when their internal sensor interface, beeped in alarm detecting a high explosive device activation. The remaining Wraith died after detonating a hole pack of demolition charges, used to blow open secured doors. The resulting explosion opened a hole in wall that lead to space, creating an explosive decompression throughout the corridor, that sucked both Terran troopers.

Zeke was barely able to get hold from an adjacent corridor piping with his left arm, when he saw Cookie flying besides him. He barely grabbed his left arm, forcing Cookie in a direct parabolic trajectory to the wall, which he reached with a resounding thud.

"I hope that wasn't intentional." said Cookie

"It wasn't but it sounded good." answered Zeke, and both started laughing again.

"What the hell was that?" they heard Sarah through their intercoms, while she overrode security protocols and closed some blast doors, isolating the corridor where Zeke and Cookie were in.

"The Wraith Ma'am, they detonated some explosives that breached the hull." answered Zeke.

"OK, I blocked that corridor. You'll have to wait until we've retrieved all of Sun Tzu's personnel before we can open them again. It won't be long."

"Yes Ma'am." said Zeke, while sitting on the floor and turning to see Cookie, "Twenty five – Twenty three. You lost Cookie"

"Only because you cheated."

"What? You are going to find excuses now?"

"Ahh!" he said while sitting besides Zeke, "The Falklands are yours."

Zeke turned to look at the front wall, meditating something. He turned back to look at Cookie. "I propose you something."

"Yeah? What?"

"Lets use the Malvilands or the Falkvinas to make a bridge for our people instead of a wall. Why don't we share them, and grow from there as brothers." said Zeke while extending a hand to Cookie

"If we'd both had leaders thinking like you back then. The things we could have accomplished." said Cookie while grabbing Zeke's hand, "I accept bro. I accept."

The two resolved in their imaginations a conflict that had torn apart two nations in the past, with a simple handshake.

It took nearly thirty minutes to eliminate the Wraith from the ship, retrieve all personnel and data cores, and sabotaging all important components to avoid falling in to Wraith's hands. The ship was going to be destroyed, as the external replicator of the Achilles was non operational for repairs due to Wraith jamming, but still they sabotage everything in case they weren't able to destroy it.

"Sir. Boarding teams and Sun Tzu's personnel, including the entire command staff are safely on board. Shall we proceed?"

"Yes, but fake shield instability, so that they think we are force to retire and destroy the ship. I don't want them even guessing we have dilation fields."

"Yes Sir."

The Achilles momentarily shut down its cloak, and created faked instabilities in the shield pattern for the Wraith to see. The ship took some distance, and opened with full force against the Sun Tzu. Four secondary fusion beams hit it, destroying it almost completely, a few seconds later a full continuous barrage from the point defence cannons, struck the remaining small pieces of the Upgraded Daedalus, leaving nothing for the Wraith to work with. The ship then headed for the bow of the Sun Tzu, and repeated the same operation to retrieve stranded personnel on the forward section of the vessel, after which, they took their distance and destroyed what remained of the bow, all of this time firing drones into the Wraith units, which were low in numbers, as the majority of the ships had headed for the main fleet's elements.

After a few seconds, in which the Achilles wiped out every single Wraith unit in its vicinity. The ship headed for the main fleet, which had been joined by the right flank, and started to engage the rear elements of the extremely numerous Wraith forces.

The Wraith ignored the Achilles and threw everything they had into the fleeing combined Fleet. Its elements were heavily engaged. The six remaining Upgraded Daedalus, were firing drones and Rail guns, while being physically covered by the remaining three Beliskners, one of them was being continuously pounded by Fusion warhead equipped darts, and had its shields reduced considerably. Its crew in an heroic gesture, turned their ship up to move away of the main Wraith elements, and then turned back into the heavy concentration of Wraith Cruisers, as soon as it reach firing range, it did what it was design to do.

The Beliskner opened fire with its forward Plasma Cannon. Two 200 Peta joule plasma pulses per second left the ship, striking Wraith cruisers with enough force as to destroy them with three to four shots. Several Cruisers fell in rapid succession, but the Asgard ship, with its shields almost down, was immediately drown in an enormous amount of 1.5 Peta joule bolts, but the Asgard hadn't play their last card yet. They headed at full speed into the heaviest concentration of Wraith Cruisers, the ship was taking serious damage, as its shields were already letting some energy pass through, but they had accomplished what they set out to do. They detonated their self destruct, and wiped out a full formation of seventeen cruisers, while damaging several others.

The Wraith cruiser advance was momentarily stop, by the force of the Asgard attack, but they had tasted blood, and their numbers made it easy to recover, and now they pressed with even more determination.

Wraith darts were trying to silence the drone launching ships, while the Asgard vessels made every possible move to try to block those attacks, but with only two units remaining, they were finding it difficult. Darts were passing by, detonating on the Upgraded Daedalus, and while all ships were being hit, they were concentrating their numbers to try an overwhelmed the shield recharge rates, and they were succeeding grandiosely, as one Upgraded Daedalus lost its shield and died after its strong trinium armor was overwhelmed by more than forty fusion warhead equipped darts. The Apollo, a ship with one of the highest kill ratios on the Terran Federation Fleet, was lost with all hands.

"Where is Commodore Hara?" barked Caldwell

"Sir, they are less than a minute away from Olesia." said the Sensor Officer

**TFS-26 Athena – Achilles class**

**Flag Bridge**

**That same time …**

"Helm, find an opening on that formation, and jump in system as soon as possible." said Hara referring to the Wraith ships in hyperspace.

"Sir, shouldn't we clear those cruiser from range, to let our ships escape?" asked the XO

"That'll take some time, and our fleet will not last than long. We'll let the Vice Admiral do that for us. Our duty now is to our Fleet."

"But they can destroy us if we open a vortex, Sir."

"We are jumping in an open space, sufficiently away from Wraith cruisers as to be able to transition before the shock wave reaches us. Lieutenant! Make the jump now, all ships in unison."

The Fleet was being hammered, all vessels except the Achilles had their shields on the verge of collapse, when five jump points opened in front of them, releasing a prey seeking wolf pack.

The jump points closed to hide the bright blue light of hyperspace, just to give way to the bright blue light of five bow mounted fusion beam cannons. The spears of light, passed through the retreating Human and Asgard vessels to impale a similar number of Wraith cruisers, and then followed closely by forty smaller beams but with sufficient power to destroy a cruiser with a single hit. Following the beams were eight hundred drones being launch every second, and out of their hangars poured two thousand five hundred and sixty SF-1 'Myrmidon' Space Superiority Fighters, which started releasing drones and racing to the rescue.

After nearly fifteen minutes of fighting, the first arrivals had cause enormous damage to the Wraith forces, as they were expecting to fight a smaller number of ships. They had been able to destroy four vessels and in consequence had severely weaken the Combined Fleet, but they not only didn't count on a numerous force, they didn't even consider the existence of Achilles class vessels. One had been shocking, but six were just to much.

Drones reached the beleaguered Human and Asgard forces, clearing their space of Wraith darts, and continuing their advance into the throng of enemy forces. Fusion beams of six Achilles class vessels were tearing apart cruisers at an alarming rate, while drones and point defences were shredding the darts. With so many ships exploding, the Wraith forces were in disarray, some units even fled to hyperspace to avoid the heavy barrage of drones that were approaching, only to find a big surprise waiting for them, in the form of Deja vu. A huge barrage of drones, coming from eighteen encircling Achilles class vessels firing at maximum range, and under the command of Vice Admiral Samantha Carter.

It took just under three minutes to destroy the hyperspace deployed Wraith forces, and wait for the shock waves to recede, before another sixteen Achilles class vessels transitioned into normal space, leaving two behind to intercept escaping Wraith forces.

The sixteen new arrivals engaged the enemy from its zenith, firing first their bow cannons in a show of force, but then concentrating fire with their secondary beams which numbered a hundred and twenty eight. Two thousand and a half drones per second and more than eight thousand SF-1 'Myrmidons' deployed to join the fray.

If the fast response Fleet was overkill, the arrival of Vice Admiral Carter's forces were just insurance for complete annihilation. With so many Achilles class secondary beams firing into Wraith cruisers, their participation in the battle was eliminated in less than twenty seconds. The remaining darts which still numbered more than a hundred thousand, had no chance to escape to hyperspace, and were hunted down without mercy, by an enormous amount of drones, launched by capital ships and fighters, and ended their existence in less than a minute after the last Wraith cruiser was destroyed.

The Olesian system was secured at last.

**Olesia's orbit - Olesian system**

**Twenty minutes later**

The space above Olesia illuminated with more than three hundred incoming hyperspace vortexes.

"Vice Admiral we are being hailed."

"On the holographic display, please." said Carter. She saw the image appear in the holographic display and sighted with watery eyes and a huge smile on her face. "Thor! You can't possibly understand how happy I am, of seeing you and your people back up."

"It is through your peoples help, Samantha Carter, that we have been given a second lease on life. We are in your debt."

"As are we." she paused and continued, "You brought a sizeable Fleet."

"Yes, when we received images from our vessels engaging Wraith forces, we assembled a Fleet with the numbers we thought will be necessary to defeat them. It seems you were able to do the same, but with a much smaller number of vessels. I have to say that I'm impress with your new design."

"Thank you, Thor, but it wouldn't have been possible without your technology."

"Still, you have come with new approaches, while implementing our technology. Most impressive."

"I'm sure the Federation council will agree to share it with you."

"And that is something we are not going to agree upon."

Carter had a confused face so Thor added. "We have extensively used, our mind and knowledge transferring technology, and that has given us extreme intelligence, but it has also made us unwise. We have been unable to use our knowledge in creative an constructive ways, things that your people find too easy to implement, to the degree that it falls into the obvious. Our pride made my people think that our brains had evolved too much to be able to process primitive thoughts, but I knew better. We are unable to apply our knowledge as you do, because we have never required to work to gain it. We just download information it into our brains and thought that it is enough to make us smart and it is, but work and experience are required to make one wise. That is why, we will reject your help for new technology as long as we are not threatened, while we implement new ways of indoctrination. Your help will be greatly appreciate it in this regard as well as in the continued research for our cloning problems."

"I understand Thor, and we'll help you in anyway we can. We'll also have to rethink our strategies, as we were making good use of the knowledge transferring technology. Maybe will keep using it, but add extensive simulator use on applying the technology for every citizen of the federation, so as to avoid the problems you have incurred."

"That may be a wise move, Samantha Carter."

"How are your people faring?"

"We have located a new suitable planet, and have commenced our rebuilding process. We will be occupied in that matter for some time. We have also made contact with the Asgard of Pegasus, and they have agreed to return to the Ida Galaxy with us."

"Will you be leaving now then?"

"Yes Samantha Carter, but we have come with a great force to help eliminate the Wraith. Two hundred and seventy five Beliskners and fifty eight O'Neills. We will leave the Beliskners under your command and I will return to Ida with the O'Neills. As you already know, the Beliskners are not as Advance as the O'Neills, but they are still powerful vessels and all that remains of that class. We have yet to regain our starship replication capabilities, so that is why we will be keeping the O'Neills for our protection, but if they are required, we will dispatch them immediately."

"I appreciate your trust in our command. Is it OK with you, if we deploy troops to your Beliskners?"

"To what purpose?"

"I'm concerned about the Wraith's intention in capturing our hyper-drive technology, I know of the technologies installed in your ships to avoid just that, as many have been implemented in the Achilles class, but they may still find a way as the replicators did, to board your ships, while nullifying your internal defences, so it will be nice to have some shock troopers to provide extra protection."

"I see no problems with that, and the extra security will be welcome. They are yours to command."

"Thanks Thor." she said while the holographic image of Thor faded away, and soon the fifty eight O'Neills enter hyperspace en route to the Ida Galaxy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Five**

**Pegasus Galaxy**

**Deep Space**

**Wraith Queens meeting**

**June 27, 2010**

"This changes everything. Their new ships are far superior to what even the Lanteans had." the Mega Mind thought

"It's no different that what we faced at the beginning of our war with them. It took us more than a hundred years to muster a force strong enough to overwhelm and defeat them. We can do the same now. Their ships can be destroyed, we just need to increase our numbers in a way that will make their most populated worlds look barren. We currently possess 711 cloning facilities in almost the same number of worlds. We'll order all planets to expand as much as they can. We'll cover the entire surface of every planet in our control if its necessary to defeat them, even if we have to create millions of facilities to accomplish that. We will not be defeated, and we'll drown their technology with numbers as we did to the Lanteans."

"It takes a lot of time to produce a cloning facility, and we currently have only 35 Hive ships left, each with 11,520 darts. We'll be unable to hold them if they come searching for us."

"Again, it's no different than what we faced with the Lanteans. We'll have to keep a low profile for many years, until we have sufficient cloning facilities to produce Hive ships, and sufficient Hive ships to produce cruisers. In the mean time we'll certainly lose many worlds, but as our production increases, our defenses will too. We may require to deploy millions of darts to any battle in order to defeat or repel an assault. We'll cheaply expand our cloning facilities to include at least the same number of darts a Hive ship carries. That way, when a planet exceeds more than a hundred facilities, it will be protected by more than a million darts, and if we are to include those on the Hive ships produced at that planet and on the cruisers produced by the Hive ships, we may be exceeding ten million darts per planet. I want to see them storm seven hundred worlds with that power, and that will be the beginning, as a planet could potentially hold thousands of cloning facilities."

"That will take even more time, than we took in our war with the Lanteans."

"Time is of no consequence. Victory is. We'll have to shield our facilities to avoid detection from orbital scans, and move new Hive ships produced to the outer reaches of each solar system to hide them until we have sufficient numbers as to engage the humans, while we let each ship produce cruisers, to increase our numbers even further."

"It takes 51 months to produce a Hive ship, and nearly 72 to produce a cloning facility from another facility while keeping production of our Hive ships."

"Yes, but we'll still double our production capabilities every 72 months. It will take 48 years to exceed one hundred cloning facilities on every planet, but only 72 more months to double it again."

During their war with the Lanteans, the Wraith had applied this strategy in the last years of the war, and with far less facilities per planet that were being planned to build, were able to defeat the ancients and forced them to run with their tails between their legs. After the war, the extra facilities were abandoned and literally died out as they were living organisms. Only one facility per planet was kept supplied with sufficient energy to allow it a state of hibernation. Those 711 facilities had been awoken and were now producing a similar number of Hive ships, but once again, the cloning facility expansion was set in motion, only that this time, it was to defeat the Terran Federation.

"Shall we send the commands and begin hibernation?" the Mega mind asked itself

"We'll send the commands, but we'll immediately redeploy our remaining Hive ships to different planets to gather the resources necessary to finish our human cloning facilities, and to start producing cruisers. We have sufficient internal human reserves to avoid hibernation. They'll be enough to last until our first cloned humans are ripped for consumption"

The Mega Mind continued its self asked and self answered ritual, always finding flaws in a question and giving solutions in an answer. It continued searching for ways to defeat these new humans. They had been defeated, but the losses were infinitesimal compared to the losses suffered in their war with the Lanteans. A war that raged throughout the entire Pegasus Galaxy, and not only a planet. A war against a highly advanced galactic reaching empire. A war that saw the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Wraith ships, just to capture a single planet. The Ancients developed the drones in order to field a weapon system capable of defeating the huge numbers the Wraiths were fielding, but still it wasn't enough. They were defeated by an extremely numerous, low tech enemy, that couldn't care less about losses.

**Dakara – Free Jaffa Nation Capitol**

**Council Meeting Hall**

**July 19,2010**

"This is more than we can handle. We must ask the Tau'ri for help. There is no way we'll be able to defeat those numbers." said Ka'lel

"Master Yat'kin, is the Tau'ri report reliable?" asked U'kin

"It's more precise than anything we could have come up with. We won't get better intelligence than this." answered Yat'kin

U'kin sighed and turned to Ka'lel "Mistress Ka'lel, I understand your concern, but we must address this matter with the utmost care. We not only face the Aschen threat, but also internal struggle. Every solution must take into account both subjects or we may cover a hole, just to uncover another."

"But how? How do you intend to face the Aschen without help? Master U'kin, I see no other way. We do not have the resources, nor the numbers to stop them. We'll have to deal with our social problems later."

"I'm not saying we don't ask the Tau'ri for help. All I'm saying is that we need to keep their participation a secret. They are not, under any circumstances, to fight at our side. We must ask for help in resources, including weapons, ships, and intelligence. Our Jaffa won't know the origin of those weapons or resources, only that they are our designs."

"And what if in the future, our people find out?"

"It'll be far less damaging than openly accepting military help from the Tau'ri."

"Why?" asked Ka'lel

"Because it will be our people who defeated the Aschen, not the Tau'ri. We are warriors, victory and defeat is what affect the minds of our Jaffa, not economic or resource gathering. They couldn't care less about those things."

"Well, I'm still opposed to the idea of fighting alone. It may be our people who defeat the Aschen, but it will also be our people doing the dying. If there are Jaffa prideful enough, that they blind their reason, as to the importance of our Alliance with the Tau'ri, I couldn't care less about them going away. The Universe is big enough for all of us." she turned to look at the rest of the council and added, "Am I the only one who see things this way?"

It was Master Bra'tak who answered. "Mistress Ka'lel, I agree with you, but we are members of the Jaffa Council. Even if we don't like it, we still have to consider our people's needs in every decision we make. That said, I don't like it, but I have to agree that Master U'kin is correct with our social assessment. We fought and bled to unite all Jaffa, and we can't risk that falling apart. Yes, our people may have to bleed even further against the Aschen, but this is not a war we started. This is not something we brought upon ourselves. We are being forced to fight, and we will fight to protect our Nation, a Nation of free and united Jaffa!"

"Indeed, and we must make this Free Jaffa Nation strong and capable of defending itself. The Tau'ri are true allies; no one understands that better than me, but we can't rely on them to solve our problems every time. We can however call for their assistance if the situation gets desperate, but in the mean time, lets ask for enough indirect military help to level the playing field with the Aschen." said Teal'c.

Ka'lel sighed. "I still don't like our people being sent into harms way alone, but you may be right. What help can they provide that will allow us to fight the Aschen on even terms?"

"If I may answer that?" Yat'kin interjected.

"Of course Master Yat'kin." said Bra'tak.

"Thank you, Master Bra'tak. There are several things that the Tau'ri could provide. First, as you all know, we are already upgrading our older Ha'taks to the Batch 1 configuration, and the first new vessels with those specs will be leaving the shipyards in a few weeks. We could ask the Tau'ri to help us redesign our ships to the final configuration faster, as they are far more knowledgeable in ship design than we currently are. That will allow us to start fielding our Batch 3 design even faster."

"Second, they can provide resources, to allow us to maximize our shipbuilding capabilities from the actual 27 Ha'taks, to more than a hundred per year."

"And Third and most important, we could ask them to construct more Ha'taks for us. All of these in exchange for planets."

"We are sure we want to deliver the design of our Ha'taks to the Tau'ri, right?" asked U'kin.

"If Master Teal'c is correct, and the Asgard left the Tau'ri with their entire repository of knowledge, then yes, I'm asking to release the Ha'tak design to them, as they'll most certainly possess more advanced technology, than we currently have. A fact well showed in the Aschen report, but still, even with their help, I'm doubtful about gathering sufficient ships to truly oppose the Aschen."

"The Tau'ri possess a huge industrial capacity that alone could rival that of the Aschen. I have seen it." said Teal'c.

"Then by all means, I'm all for it." said U'kin, turning to see a Jaffa guard, "Send for Ambassador Woolsey."

The guard bowed and left to fetch the Terran Federation's ambassador, who was waiting in an adjacent hallway. A few minutes later, he arrived with Richard Woolsey.

"Ambassador Woolsey, it's good to have you back. Please thank your people on our behalf for the report on the Aschen, it is most welcome."

"Thank you, Master Teal'c. They will be given."

"Ambassador Woolsey, we appreciate you coming on such short notice. We summoned you, to request assistance in our war with the Aschen. As you already know, our forces and economy are unable to deal with an enemy as powerful as them, so we were interested in knowing the position of the Tau'ri regarding this matter." said Master Bra'tak.

"We are ready to honor our Alliance commitments. We have forces ready to deploy to Tyl'mah as soon as you request them." Woolsey paused to look to the entire assembly and added, "We'll fight side by side with our Jaffa brothers to defeat our enemies one more time."

His answer struck a nerve on Master U'kin, who immediately understood the loyalty to the Tau'ri showed by Bra'tak, Teal'c and Ka'lel. Their honor in committing without hesitation and their willingness to risk their people in the defense of his nation, was something rarely seen, and that inspired unquestionable friendship and loyalty towards them.

"It is an honor to count your people as an ally Ambassador Woolsey. However, it is not direct military help we are requesting. As you know, our Nation has had difficulties in integrating Jaffa from different Goa`uld factions. Many of them still hold the Tau'ri in contempt, and accepting your military assistance, that, believe me, would be most welcome, will only increase separatist sentiments between our people. Many Jaffa feel shame at requiring help from the Tau'ri in order to solve our problems. It is seen as a failure in our warrior code to be unable to defeat one's enemies. That is why we are more interested in receiving help from your people in a way that does not compromise our Nation's integrity or unity." said U'kin.

"I understand," said Woolsey bowing his head. "In what way can we be of assistance?"

"Master Yat'kin, if you please."

"Yes Master U'kin," he said while turning to see Woolsey, and he explained all of the FJN requirements, from batch 3 Ha'taks, through resource requirements, to Ha'tak production requests, but without mentioning selling Jaffa planets for them.

"And how many ships and resources are you asking for?" asked Woolsey.

"Our industry requires in excess of a hundred million tonnes of raw materials per year to maximize our shipbuilding capacity. We could provide the exact percentages of the different materials required, but the more than a hundred Ha'taks, even in batch 3 configuration that we could produce per year, will not be enough to face the Aschen, that's why we are requesting as many Ha'taks as you can produce, Because our needs are in the thousands."

Woolsey turned to face the councilors and said, "I will present your request to the Federation council, but I have to be honest: It'll be difficult to commit our people to a course of action that will be far more expensive than direct military assistance, especially when the ally we are to send this help does not consider us worthy as a friend or ally!" he finished with a heavy tone.

"Ambassador Woolsey, we had no intention of insulting you or your people with this request. Please understand the fragility of our situation. We do consider the Tau'ri as our most trusted and loyal ally, but please understand that we have fought too hard to keep our people united to lose that because of political decisions. It is in both our interests to keep the Free Jaffa Nation united, but we also understand your concerns. That's why we want to exchange those resources for planets." said Bra'tak

"For planets?"

"Yes, Ambassador. Master Yat'kin will provide you with a list of planets we are willing to cede in exchange of resources and ships."

"And in what terms are you requesting the exchange?"

"Do you mean, how many ships or resources would we be asking for per planet?"

"Yes, Master Yat'kin."

"Well, we would be willing to cede a planet for 10 Giga tonnes of resources in the percentages required to build a Ha'tak, or half of that in ships, that's 5,000 Ha'taks, or a combination of both."

"5,000 Ha'taks!"

"It is a planet we are talking about Ambassador Woolsey. In the long term, your people will get the better part of the deal."

"The resources and industrial capacity required to build that amount of ships is huge." said Woolsey without mentioning the availability of replication technology. "If we were to give you that amount of resources you could produce 10,000 Ha'taks, and it'll take you more than a hundred years to produce with your actual industrial capacity, and you want us to provide those resources, or half of them in ships for just one planet?"

"It is a planet Ambassador Woolsey."

"Still, your proposal is not realistic. We have the mass of the entire Galaxy to produce ships, but without the means to convert those resources in ships, it is useless."

"What I meant, is that they are habitable planets. You could colonize them. Your people can expand in them. They are not just rocks with resources. They combine the right elements to support life."

"Believe me Master Yat'kin, I understand that very well, but lets say we agree and give you the resources. In what way will that help the war effort?, when you'll still be able to produce a little more than a hundred ships per year."

"That's why we are asking you to commit your industrial capacity, to increase the number of ships deployed."

"Yes, but only at half the price. Lets say we agree again, but if we are to apply the same conditions you are applying. That is ships at half the cost, then we'll deliver them in 50 years instead than in 100. What I mean is, that time frame involves a completely different set of industrial capacity. We could give you 5000 ships in 50 years, but still that won't help the war effort, as you will still be receiving 100 per year. If we have to develop a stronger industrial capacity to deliver ships faster, that will involve a bigger investment on our part. What I mean is, that if we are to deploy ships in a greater quantity than your actual industrial capacity can muster, then we'll be delivering a smaller number of ships per planet than what you are asking for, but also on a smaller time frame, increasing the number of ships delivered per year."

"But..."

"Enough, Master Yat'kin." said Bra'tak turning to Woolsey. "Please tell your people to deliver their proposal for us to review, and we'll give you an answer as soon as possible."

"Of course Master Bra'tak. I'm sure the Federation will deliver ships without cost as part of our Alliance commitments, but I'll bring the proposal of how many extra ships we could provide and at what cost."

"That will be most welcome Ambassador Woolsey. You can return to your people now, and again we thank you for responding in such short notice."

"Thanks Master Bra'tak, I'll return as soon as possible." he said while turning to the rest of the assembly, "Councilors."

Woolsey left the room and U'kin spoke. "That man is a Goa`uld."

"Indeed, but they are called business men by the Tau'ri. Ambassador Woolsey is very well prepared for negotiations. We must expect their proposal to be inferior to what we were asking, and that is because we didn't specify the time frame, something that he took advantage immediately." said Teal'c.

**Dakara – Free Jaffa Nation Capitol**

**Council Meeting Hall**

**July 22,2010**

" …, we have ships deployed on the Aschen's borders, providing signals intelligence in the form of voice communications intercepts and electronic transmissions decryption and analysis. We can provide those reports immediately. We could also solve the design requirements for the Batch 3 Ha'tak in two months, and the Federation will be willing to produce twenty four Ha'taks every year, but will be able to start deliveries on January next year. All of these will be delivered for free, as a grant from our Alliance commitments." said Woolsey

"Thank you greatly, Ambassador Woolsey, your people's help is greatly welcomed. We'll be nearly doubling our shipbuilding capacity, and considerably increasing our Ha'taks fire-power with this help. Greatest of all is the knowledge of Aschen's Fleet deployment and strategies. Again thank you. Do you have an answer to our request for resources and extra ships in exchange for planets?" asked U'kin

"Yes Master U'kin. We could start delivering the raw materials requested almost immediately, and the Federation council has agreed to put our economy into a war footing to provide more than two thousand Ha'taks per year." answered Woolsey, failing to mention that while on a normal economy, even with a war footing, Earth could barely produce this. It was used as the measure the council applied to grant help to the FJN. They couldn't release the fact that they had replication technology, which in theory could provide for an inconceivable amount of ships, because that could lead the FJN and anyone who found out to try to get a hold on that technology through diplomatic and not so diplomatic ways. It was possible that sooner or later that information could be leaked, but it was better for it to be later. For now, the Terran Federation calculated how many ships Earth could produce per year with a war footing normal economy, and they came up with that number.

"You could provide us with more than two thousand ships per year?" asked Ka'lel with a surprised face.

"Yes Mistress. The Federation is planning on delivering a Ha'tak every four hours once our assembly lines are in full tilt, but we expect to be able to do this beginning January next year."

"At what price ambassador?" asked U'kin.

"One habitable planet including the solar system it belongs per two thousand one hundred and ninety Ha'taks. They will include sufficient reactor grade Naquada reserves per ship to have them operational for ten years without resupply, other than food, crew rotations, and standard maintenance. We'll also be providing weapons grade liquid Naquada for the weapons systems of each ship delivered by us, as long as you are at war with the Aschen. The number of ships delivered per planet are not the five thousand that you asked, but you didn't consider the logistics to keep them operational and in combat condition. We are covering both. Also, the Federation is willing to exchange the twenty four ships that are to be deliver as grants for 100 Mega tonnes of resources per year to max out your production capabilities."

The council knew they wouldn't get the ships per planet they were asking for, but the Terran Federation's proposal that included reactor and weapon's fuel, and 100 Mega tonnes of free resources per year was more than they could ask for. For the Federation, it was just a matter of creating a replication facility capable of handling this production capacity, and feeding it with enough raw material to keep it running. In short, the Federation was gaining habitable planets for almost no effort, and the FJN was gaining a lot of ships and resources for planets they barely used or that were acquired from small human settlements. A good bargain for both of them.

"We accept your terms Ambassador Woolsey, and we'd also like to exchange the twenty four vessels for resources. Please thank your people for their contribution, and tell them we are ready to proceed." said Bra'tak.

"Yes Master Bra'tak."

**Tyl'mah – Free Jaffa Nation Colony**

**September 7, 2010**

Several weeks before, the FJN detected a single Aschen SSV (Scout Space Vessel) on direct approach for Tyl'mah. It was one of hundreds of Aschen vessels scouting systems close to Nakgora in an effort to locate other Jaffa worlds. The enemy ship entered system, and found it empty as all other systems scouted before it, but one planet seemed to possess the required characteristics of a habitable world, so the SSV headed for it to make a full planetary scan.

Seeing that the attempt to mask their presence had failed, the Jaffa ordered the ship destroyed. One Ha'tak entered hyperspace from the outer reaches of the solar system and re-entered normal space in front of the SSV. Seconds later, it ceased to exist.

Now the story was repeating itself, but with more ships. The Aschen had sent a more numerous force to investigate the scouts disappearance and left several SSVs staggered in hyperspace. They were separated from each other with more than an hour difference. This allowed them to keep in touch with their forces and detect if some things went wrong with the system scouts, four of which entered the Jaffa star system from different locations, while the others remained in hyperspace.

Fleet Master Rak`nor didn't want the Aschen to detect Tyl'mah, but there was nothing he could do to avoid that now. Before the Aschen arrived, he had deployed twelve Ha'taks in Tyl'mah's orbit, just to show that there was someone protecting it. However, he had left the rest of his fleet in cover at the outer reaches of the solar system. That was one card he didn't want to show, one that he would only use when the Aschen arrived with an overwhelming force.

Four Ha'taks stayed in orbit, while four pairs headed in different directions to intercept the incoming SSVs. As each pair approached their designated targets, the SSVs retreated into hyperspace. After several minutes they were all gone and heading towards the Nakgora system, and transmitting the information gathered to the Aschen High Command.

**Aschen Prime – Aschen Confederation**

**High Command Headquarters**

**September 8, 2010**

"... All I'm saying is that we'll be extending our supply lines considerably. We should solidify our gains and build stockpiles at the border before continuing further." argued Admiral Nerrob Goyzem

"There are no more Goa`ulds my friend. Our precarious non aggression treaty with them is voided. The time for subterfuge expansion is over. I want that colony leveled and the planet captured. The Jaffa were just servants and we are not leaving the Goa`uld domain to them. We have prepared for far too many years to not act now." said Fleet Admiral Eiru Mellom.

"I agree Eiru, but our scouting effort to locate the Jaffa forward bases had showed us the logistical bottle neck our Fleet has. We are very well prepared for a defensive war, but we definitely require more transports if we are to engage in an all out war with the Jaffa. At the moment we can't support more than three CSV (Command Space Vessel) battle groups in front line operations without taking ships assigned for food and raw material ferrying missions."

"Our shipyards have been prioritizing transport ship construction. You will have your logistical requirements covered soon enough, but for the moment, how much time do you need to capture and secure that system?"

"I will require at least three CSV battle groups, but I'd like to keep the two deployed to the recently captured planet to secure our supplies. We'll need to move three new battle groups there, and then the resources to support the operation. I believe I could be reaching that planet in a little more than three months."

"Why not take just one as last time and attack immediately? I believe they can easily take those twelve Jaffa vessels."

"I agree, but this time they know we are coming, and we don't know if that planet is their major base of operation. They could have many more vessels in adjacent systems. I prefer not to risk it and just go in force."

"A wise move my friend, a wise move. We have complete confidence in your ability. Make the preparations and show them that no matter what they do, they'll be unable to stop us."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Six**

**Terran Federation Space near Free Jaffa Nation's non declared border**

**345 degrees Galactic Longitude and 37,000 light years from Earth - 3kpc Arm near Galactic Bar**

**TFS-41 Enyo – Achilles class**

**Bridge**

**September 12, 2010**

"Any one Captain?" asked Lieutenant John Perhar the Enyo's sensors officer. A British born officer of Indian descent, Perhar was dedicated and detail intensive.

"Any one with at least a solid planet that we can use for resources; and please find one that goes easy on the transporter and replication systems, one without much background radiation. I don't want the station to have to constantly compensate. A red dwarf or a brown dwarf system will be OK." answered Captain Greg Woodruff with a wave of his hand. A former US Los Angeles class submarine Captain, who started his career with the Terran Federation Space Force as XO of the TFS-12 Aeneas; he was one of the first to be assigned as Captain of an Achilles class without being assigned first to a Daedalus.

"I have a spectral class L brown dwarf, with the equivalent of 23 Jupiter masses that seems pretty stable at this range, and with nothing more than a planetoid smaller than Pluto at 2.7 AU from its sun." said John

"Great. Helm, set a course." said the Captain.

The Enyo changed course and headed for the brown dwarf solar system, then slowed for transition to normal space, entering system close to the planetoid.

"Give me a full analysis Lieutenant, if you please." said the Captain to the sensor's officer.

"Aphelion: 2.98 AU, Perihelion 2.54 AU, Semi-major axis 2.76 AU, Orbital period 1,680.5 days, Average orbital speed 17.82 km/s ..."

The Captain interrupted him, "Give me the Physical characteristics and the mineral analysis only."

"Yes, Sir. Equatorial radius: 487.3 km, Polar radius: 454.7 km, Surface area: 2,845,794.56 sq km, Mean density: 2.077 g/cm3, Mass: 943 Exa tonnes ..."

"With the mass and mean density is enough Lieutenant. Give me the mineral composition, please."

"Yes, Sir. It consists of a rocky core overlain with an icy mantle, which is 100 km thick and 28 percent of the planetoid by mass, but 50 percent by volume, and contains 200 million cubic kilometers of frozen water, which is more than the amount of fresh water on Earth."

"Common on planetoids. What about the core?"

"The core is composed mainly of iron silicates, oxides and sulfides."

"Divide the mean density of a Ha'tak's composition by that of the planetoid, and give me a number."

"9.32, Sir."

"Hmm... We'll need a lot more power for the replication facility. Thank you Lieutenant."

"Sir?"

"What is it John?"

He smiled, "Eh. Considering energy losses from replication inefficiencies and reactor consumption, we have enough mass in this planetoid to produce more than a hundred million Ha'taks."

"You really did that calculation?" asked the Captain with a surprised face.

"Yes, Sir." answered the sensor officer proudly.

"My God." said Captain Woodruff shaking his head, "Thank you, Lieutenant. It's good to know that we are not running out of resources." he said smiling, but kept shaking his head, and then added "Send the mean densities to the external replication team, and tell them that they are to commence replication of the facility as soon as they have made the corresponding modifications to the power output of the station"

"Yes, Captain."

A few hours later, the transporter system started beaming raw material from the surface of the planetoid and onto the Enyo, were it was converted into different materials and alloys, and then beaming them away to start construction of the Ha'taks replication facility. The space station was to be located at low orbit, as to allow it to move faster than the planetoid's standard rotation, so that it could homogeneously mine it for raw materials with its transporter technology, and also to reduce the range the transporter system will have to work from.

The station had two requirements:

First, it needed to produce 100 Mega tonnes of raw materials in the percentages required to build a Ha'tak. Transporting the materials via Stargate would have required at least three of them working almost non stop in order to transfer the amounts required, and the Jaffa didn't have the logistical capacity to move those amounts of resources fast enough from the vicinities of the stargates. Waiting for them to do so would have required a far greater amount of stargates, and in consequence a far greater number of replication facilities, so it was decided to use replicated Al'kesh supply trains to ferry the resources directly to the shipyards, and download them via ring transporter to the ground. This could also be performed on close Jaffa planets and sent the resources via stargate towards far away shipyards.

Second, it needed to produce one Batch 3 Ha'tak every four hours, and that required a little more than twenty times the flow of raw materials from the surface of the planetoid than was required to produce the 100 Mega tonnes.

As the density of the planet would influence the transporter beam and reactor requirements, the station was designed to be modular. Planetoid side, the facility will have a total of five transporter beam emitters modules deployed in line, with two emitters per module to provide redundancy, rest and repair time for five, while the other five stayed in operation. The emitter modules were attached to a bigger 400 meter by 400 meter and 100 meter thick platform, that housed a total of 32 GENFR (Gravimetric Enhanced Naquadria S Fusion Reactors). A total of 21 reactors with a total output of 4.2 EW were required for replication duties, while the reminder were to be used as backup and for the cloaking device. The platform continued upwards for another hundred meters where the control center and habitat section were located, including a stargate and several warehouses. On top was the main Ha'tak replication center. It was completely open to space, but surrounded by eight spider like arms, that contained the replication beam emitters. The station was able to replicate a Ha'tak at the lower areas of the arms, and Al'kesh supply trains on top.

The Enyo started working at full power to replicate the space station, and it was expected that in a little more than a month the facility will start deploying Al'kesh supply trains to provide the FJN with the raw material required to max out Ha'tak production, and at the start of next year, the station would start producing Ha'taks. This last was decided to mimic the time required to start mass producing ships in a non-replication capable shipyard.

Captain Greg Woodruff was standing proudly in front of the observation deck admiring the work of the replication system, when he extended both arms, smiled, and said, "Behold, Enyalius Replication Facility."

"Enyalius? Sir." asked a bridge officer.

"Well? It's Enyo's son, so I though it was fitting." answered the Captain.

"I though it was to be called Ha'tak Replication Facility." said the communications officer.

"Not fitting. It's Enyo's creation, so we'll call it Enyalius. Lets make it even better. We'll call the planetoid Enyalius, so as the Station is orbiting it, we can now officially call it Enyalius Replication Facility." said the Captain with a definitive tone.

"Yes, Sir. Enyalius Replication Facility it is." confirmed the communications officer matter of factly, but couldn't hide the pride on his face.

"Yes it is." finished the Captain, and turned, and walked away from the bridge while saying, "I'll be in my quarters Lieutenant."

"Yes, Sir."

**Enyalius Planetoid – Terran Federation**

**October 24, 2010**

There were five bright blue dots moving around the surface of Enyalius. They were each followed by a few hundred meters long beam of bright white atmospheric distortion that went all the way through the thin Enyalius atmosphere, but once leaving it, disappeared. To the trained eye, and using an advanced sensor, it was easy to see that those beams pointed to the same location in Low Enyalius Orbit, but if they were to check the area of space where the beams would supposedly join, they would find nothing. The reality was that a cloaking field covered that location, and inside it the Enyalius Replication Facility was just starting construction of the second Al'kesh supply train. The first one was adjacent to the station waiting for its crew to begin their journey to Jaffa space.

Inside the station, its stargate activated and two humans stepped through it from the Alpha site and reached a completely enclosed room, one mimicking the Asgard stargate room at Bifröst. Immediately, two flashes of bright blue light transported both pilots to the Al'kesh cockpit.

Adjacent to the station, the Al'kesh powered up its systems and started a thorough testing process. The four bulk containers at the stern of the ship, that each carried 25,000 tonnes of raw material, were floating without any kind of tractor system holding them to the small vessel. Once the main systems were in the green, a yellowish light emerged from the stern of the Al'kesh towards the first container. The cargo module realigned itself with the Al'kesh with the power of the tractor beam, and immediately the stern of the container lit up and connected with the second cargo module, aligning it in the same manner, and repeating the process until all four containers were linked to the Al'kesh.

The station's replication beams were working on the second Al'kesh supply train when the first one started moving away from it and the Enyo which was mounting guard. In a few seconds it passed through the cloaking field, creating a small distortion on the surface of it, which, after the Al'kesh passed through, immediately rectified itself. A few minutes later the first Al'kesh supply train entered hyperspace and headed for a Jaffa shipyard.

Every 8.79 hours a new supply train will repeat this process securing raw materials for Jaffa shipyards, allowing them to max out their production. Once these vessels arrive at their destination, they will release the containers in orbit of the shipyards and leave the system to return to the replication facility. At that moment the Jaffa would start the process of unloading the resources from the cargo modules via ring transporters. Inside these modules were stacks of circular ingots the size of the ring transporter that could be mounted on circular anti-gravity repulsors. A single Jaffa would be able to move the repulsor to the stacks and lower several of them into it, and then use the ring transporter to move it to the surface, repeating the process until all 25,000 tonnes of raw material per cargo module were unloaded. A second trip from an Al'kesh supply train would repeat the process, but this time it will take the empty containers for refilling at the Enyalius Replication Facility, which would only reload the containers instead of creating whole supply trains.

**Tyl'mah – Free Jaffa Nation Colony**

**Batch 1 Ha'tak – Bridge**

**December 14, 2010**

Rak`nor had transfered his command to one of the few Batch 1 Ha'taks available on the Fleet deployed at Tyl'mah. He had received intelligence from the Terran Federation about the Aschen's Fleet composition and deployment, its E.T.A., and supply convoy's schedules. He had planned for many contingencies, but he knew, as every experienced commander knows, that operations never go as planned. He had a strong Fleet under his command that even surpassed the approaching Aschen Fleet, but he was woefully outnumbered if he took into account Aschen drones, and he had to.

His Ha'tak's hyperspace sensors had the approaching Aschen Fleet on scope. One hundred and eleven contacts. He knew that very well from the Terran Federation intelligence. They had 3 Huge CSV(Command Space Vessel), 81 ESV(Escort Space Vessel), and 27 SSV(Scout Space Vessel). These last ships were the spear head of the advance, and started dropping out into normal space on different locations. The Scouts activated their sensors, and started gathering intelligence of the entire solar system, while relaying that information to the Command Vessels. The telemetry being received by the Aschen forces in hyperspace showed that the Jaffa had 62 Ha'taks, 531 Al'keshes, and 2,976 Death Gliders in Tyl'mah's orbit.

After a few minutes of intelligence gathering, the Aschen Fleet waiting in hyperspace resumed its course towards the star system, and were about to make their transition to normal space.

"Hai'rak you know the drill, but still refresh it for every Ship Master. As soon as those ships transition, I want every task force to hit their designated Command Vessel Battle Group with force. We stop at nothing. If we allow them to deploy sufficient drones this battle is over. Is that understood?" ordered Rak'nor

"Yes, Fleet Master." answered Hai'rak, while relaying Rak'nor's orders to every single Ha'tak

A few seconds later, Tyl'mah's space was lighted up with 84 hyperspace vortexes. Three CSV Battle Groups emerged from them. One positioned in front of the Jaffa orbiting Fleet, but at more than a 100,000 kilometers, while the other two deployed at the Jaffa's flanks, but at no more than 50,000 kilometers from them. The three CSV Battle Groups were creating a triangle, and the Jaffa Fleet was at the middle of the base. The Aschen vessels wasted no time, and before the last ship transitioned, the first ones were already launching drones.

The last vortex closed, and that information was relayed to Rak'nor via subspace communications. This was what he was waiting for. 189 Ha'taks deployed outside the Heliosphere and on interstellar medium entered hyperspace opening the same number of hyperspace vortexes, and headed towards Tyl'mah. The ships streamed at maximum speed and were heading to join the Jaffa Fleet in orbit in engaging the Aschen. 57 percent of the entire Free Jaffa Nation's Ha'taks had gathered for what would be the biggest engagement in Free Jaffa history.

The Ha'taks in hyperspace separated into three groups of 63 ships, and each headed to engage one CSV Battle Group. It took them less than twenty seconds to enter hyperspace and move into position. The three Jaffa Battle Groups opened their jump vortexes above the enemy vessels. In the mean time the Aschen had deployed more than 14,000 drones, or close to 14 percent of the total. Rak'nor's goal was to take out the enemy capital ships before they could launch all their fighters, or there would be no way for him to win the battle.

The Jaffa vessels opened fire, and soon thousands of green plasma bolts streamed towards the Aschen vessels that were taken almost by surprise. They had detected the Jaffa ambush when their ships entered hyperspace from outside the Heliosphere, so they only had a few seconds to prepare for the attack.

The Aschen Fleet redeployed to engage the newly arrived ships. The Jaffa had jumped in close to the CSV Battle Groups, and this left the Aschen with no other choice than to turn and engage. Three battles ensued in different locations, but as every engagement was composed of the same number of ships, the results were almost similar, even if every ship moved and fired in different ways.

A rain of green plasma bolts dropped on the Aschen ships. Rak'nor had assigned two Ha'taks to engage every ESV, while using nine to engage every CSV. It was a huge advantage for the FJN forces and the Aschen knew it, but there was nothing they could do to avoid the results. They couldn't escape into hyperspace as the Jaffa plasma bolts were blanketing the area. Any attempt to open a vortex would result in instant instabilities that would force them to disengage, or pass through one that would certainly destroy them. So they engaged, knowing quite well the future that awaited them.

Jaffa gliders poured out of their Motherships. They headed towards the enemy drones, which were being launched by the hundreds. Their mission was to allow the Ha'taks to escape into hyperspace after finishing off the Aschen capital ships. They were to stop the thousands of drones heading their way, and then escape towards the Jaffa Fleet in orbit of Tyl'mah. The Aschen on the other hand, concentrated all their fire on single Ha'taks to allow their ships a better chance of destroying a Jaffa vessel, while at the same time, they continued launching drones. The first drones launched had already stopped their advance towards the orbital ships and were heading to engage the closer vessels.

Similar results were being mimicked on all three engagements. The first ship to be destroyed was a single Ha'tak in every battle, which had been overwhelmed by the combined fire of every CSV Battle Group. Each of the Aschen's Command Space Vessels were firing their two main cannons, and were delivering two 109 PJ bolts per second into their targets. This was enough strength to destroy a Ha'tak in almost 5 seconds, and by combining the fire-power of the entire Battle Group they were able to bring down this number to a little more than 2 seconds. The advanced Aschen battle computers were calculating the time required to destroy an enemy ship, and when the last bolt left to finish a target, they were already firing against another. That was something that could not be said of the FJN. They did have computers to align and fire their weapons against the designated target, but every new target had to be assigned by a Jaffa. This had the effect that when a ship was destroyed many bolts passed through the wreckage instead of hitting a new one.

The battle continued, and six Ha'taks had already been lost. Two in each area of operation before the Aschen started losing ESVs at an alarming rate. The enemy escorts were performing heavy evasive flying, but still the two Ha'taks assigned to each one were just too much for their shields to handle, and the Aschen Battle Groups started thinning down into nothing. At that same time the first drones started reaching the FJN positions.

The Gliders started firing at long ranges. They had learned in Nakgora the consequences of bunching up when facing fusion warhead equipped drones, and were keeping the distance between each other and the Aschen automated weapons. Even so the number of drones approaching made that proposition very complicated, and many flashes of fusion detonations were seen all over the battlefield. The Gliders were approaching in staggered formations, but were penetrating the drone line with heavy losses. Still, every time a drone blew up to take with it a glider, it also took several other drones with it, and were allowing the Jaffa fighters to accomplish their mission.

In just a few seconds of fighting the Aschen had lost all of their ESVs, but the three CSVs remaining were resisting enough, and giving time for many drones to reach the FJN positions and which compromised the Ha'taks by slamming and detonating into their shields. On each engagement, there were close to 60 Ha'taks left, and they were all firing against the CSVs. Soon the first one lost its shield, and the plasma bolts started hitting the heavily armored vessel. A few seconds later with many bolts pounding its armor and structure the ship exploded in a big fireball. The two remaining CSVs shared the same fate, and were lost several seconds later to the superior fire-power of the Jaffa motherships.

"All vessels retreat immediately! Covering fire! Covering fire!" said Rak'nor as hundreds of fusion detonations were clearly seen outside his observation window. A Ha'tak blew up, followed by several others, while the Jaffa ships fired furiously against the Aschen's drones. But either way the job was done and the first hyperspace vortexes started opening and taking the FJN fleet into hyperspace. Some of those vortexes collapsed when drones detonated on them, and some Ha'taks were crippled or forced to abort, and were unable to escape. But either crippled or stranded, it meant guaranteed destruction by the marauding drones, which soon held true to their reputation of ship killers by eliminating all the unfortunate stragglers.

The battlefield went silent. The destroyed remains of 81 ESVs and 3 CSVs, were accompanied by those of 23 Ha'taks, but while the Aschen Capital ships were destroyed, they had still been able to launch before and during the battle more than 24,000 drones. Many were lost against Gliders, Ha'tak's point defenses and through self detonation in ship killer mode, but many thousands remained and were now turning towards the Jaffa forces in orbit.

"That was close. That was very close." said Rak'nor

"Yes, Fleet Master, but we are victorious!" answered Hai'rak with a huge smile on his face.

"Not yet Hai'rak. We still have to deal with their drones and scouts, and they are not to be underestimated."

"Yes, Master. Orders?"

"We'll reinforce our fleet in orbit. Make the transition."

The 166 surviving Ha'taks transitioned to normal space, and joined the FJN Fleet in orbit.

"Master. We are entering formation … Orbit secured." said Hai'rak.

"Good. Dispatch several Al'kesh and find me those missing Scouts." ordered Rak'nor. The 27 Aschen scouts had transitioned to normal space in different location, and many of them were out of range of normal space sensors.

"Yes, Master." said Hai'rak, but wasn't given time to send the orders, when a total of 27 outgoing vortexes were detected by the hyperspace sensors. In a few seconds the first incoming vortex was detected opening in front of the Jaffa Fleet, but a little more than a hundred thousand kilometers away. A few moments later, all Aschen scouts but one, were again in normal space and in front of the Jaffa, while the more than 20,000 surviving drones converged in with them and formed a sphere around the scout ships. A single SSV was seen on hyperspace sensors moving away from Tyl'mah and heading in the direction of Nakgora and the approaching supply convoys, which were more likely to turn back towards Aschen controlled space.

Rak'nor sighed. He had destroyed the main elements of the enemy fleet, but the Aschen SSVs were still able to control the already deployed drones, and their numbers were still enough to cause devastation to the FJN Fleet. "Launch all Gliders and move them forward beyond the range of our point defences, and have the Al'keshes deploy above and below our Ha'tak's formations." ordered Rak'nor without taking his eyes from the main screen.

Hai'rak relayed his orders. Soon many Gliders started launching from the Ha'taks to join the ones already deployed in orbit, and those that stayed in normal space to cover the retreat from the main engagement zone, and which had been able to outrun the drones engaging them. It took some time, but a total of 9,167 Gliders were now ready. 2,881 had been lost defending the Ha'taks, or inside the Motherships that were destroyed, but they were still a strong enough force to take on the enemy drones. Still, one thing was certain, casualties were going to be high.

The Aschen drones accelerated to attack speed, followed closely by the scouts. They were about to reach the Gliders formations when the majority turned downwards like a shoal of fish and headed towards the lower Al'kesh formation, while one fourth of the drones engaged the Gliders. The Aschen new commander changed tactics. He was in no hurry, and was sending the highly maneuverable drones in one to one battle against the Jaffa fighters. The Aschen's fighters fired their pulse lasers first to try and take the gliders from afar, but kept their approach, and as soon as they were in range, they started detonating their fusion warheads. This forced the Jaffa gliders to keep their distance or risk being overwhelmed by the nuclear detonations, and were allowing the great majority of the enemy drones to pass through to engage the lower Al'kesh formation.

While the gliders were pinned and heavily engaged by a quarter of the drones, the majority of them were reaching the lower Al'kesh formations. The Jaffa small vessels started firing their plasma cannons towards the approaching drones, while moving into the relative safety of the Ha'taks main body, which by Rak'nor's orders, were repositioning to face the approaching drones, and were firing their primary weapons on long range suppression fire to help cover the Al'kesh retreat.

"Bring the upper Al'kesh formation inside the main body, but keep them out of our firing arcs." ordered Rak'nor, while Hai'rak complied by relaying his orders.

The Al'keshes dropped towards the Ha'taks and repositioned at their sides, while the ones from the lower formation were starting to reach the main body under heavy pressure from the Aschen, and had already lost several ships to fusion detonations.

The main drone formation reached orbit where the lower Al'keshes were, and now turned while covering their SSVs to engage the main body. At the same time several hundred drones dropped inside the atmosphere towards the main Jaffa military garrisons.

The 228 remaining Ha'taks that were deployed in a wall type formation, opened fire with their point defense cannons. More than 10,000 small plasma bolts per second were streaming towards the Aschen formations. The SSVs kept outside the range of the Ha'taks, while being covered by a strong force of drones, while the rest of the automated weapons headed at maximum speed towards the FJN forces gathered in orbit.

"Hai'rak! Order all vessels to keep formation, but start moving the Fleet away from those drones." ordered Rak'nor.

Hai'rak had gained enough experience as to comply immediately to any order given by Rak'nor, but even though he was already relaying his orders, he had to ask, and he did. "What about our garrison? Master."

"They're on their own. There is nothing we can do to assist them. We ambushed their fleet, and they want to force the same on us. They want us to move to help them so that their drones are able to overwhelm us. We will not. If they take out this Fleet, we'll be unable to stop their advance into our space. Keep the Fleet firing but in withdrawal." answered Rak'nor

It was a difficult decision for any commander to make, but he had to. Risking ships to fight on his enemy's terms while they still possessed a considerable number of drones, was not an option, as the FJN forces were in the strategic context extremely outnumbered by the Aschen Confederation. His ships still had superior speed in normal space, however, and he intended to use that to his advantage.

The wall of ships the FJN had created started moving away from the drones. The Ha'taks kept the same orientation as their drives were omnidirectional, but the Al'keshes had turned away, and were firing their plasma cannons from the stern.

It didn't take long for the Aschen to identify this Jaffa strategy, as they had used it in Nakgora. They were unable to recall their drones to jump into hyperspace and reposition to cut the FJN Fleet from fighting in withdrawal, so they ordered their drones a change of targets, and they immediately stopped their pursuit to avoid unnecessary losses, and then turned towards the gliders to hit them from behind.

It was a chess play. Constant action and counter-action. Rak'nor was watching his main screen, and considering his next move. Drones were heading to hit his gliders, and cut them from behind, so he didn't have much time. He could feel Hai'rak's eyes drilling his right cheek expecting an order. He took a deep breath and said. "Order the gliders to pull back into the main fleet body, and move the fleet forward to hit the drone's right flank to relieve a little pressure from them."

Hai'rak immediately got to work and the pieces started moving. The gliders started pulling away from their main engagement, while the Fleet started moving towards them to relieve the pressure from the new approaching drones. The Aschen commander didn't wait to make his counter move. He had a quarter of his units already engaging the Jaffa gliders, so he assigned another quarter of his drones to keep heading towards them to try and cut out their escape route, while half of his fighters changed course, and headed again towards the Jaffa Fleet.

Rak'nor was made anxious by this move and counter-move. He would have liked a direct fleet engagement as the Goa'uld battles of old, but he had to keep his fleet intact, and he also wasn't fighting a close minded system lord. This Aschen commander knew what he was doing. He didn't have capital ships apart from his Scouts, and was already giving him a terrible head-ache using only slower drones. If he pressed forward, he'll allow his gliders to rejoin formation, but would have to fight through nearly 10,000 drones to do that, or he could order his gliders to move away from them and the offending drones, and pull his Fleet back into a fighting withdrawal, and that is what he ordered.

The gliders moved away from the engagement while still fighting the original group of drones, and the Fleet started moving in the opposite direction, but still firing against the approaching Aschen fighters. Many gliders were lost, but his Fleet hadn't lost a ship apart from those on the first engagements. The Aschen on the other hand had been steadily losing drones every time they wanted to approach the Jaffa Fleet, and many other in engaging the Jaffa gliders, even though on that engagement the kill ratios were clearly in their favor.

After several minutes of pursuit, with the Aschen taking loses from Jaffa point defenses, and incapable of gaining a tactical maneuver positional advantage, the two Fleets disengaged. The Aschen commander aborted and moved his forces away, and gathered them in orbit of Tyl'mah, while the Jaffa gliders reunited with the FJN's main fleet elements.

The Jaffa fleet remained the same, but the gliders now numbered a little more than 5,000, having lost nearly half of its units to the more maneuverable Aschen drones. The Aschen Confederation still had their 26 scouts, but their drones had lost a similar number as the Jaffa gliders, mostly to Ha'taks point defenses, and now numbered close to 16,000.

On Tyl'mah, the Aschen detonated a single drone over Jaffa positions on the ground. The detonation was made at high altitude, so that the nuclear blast affected only a small area of the surface. Only the location where the Jaffa had stationed forces, as they wanted to capture the planet in good condition and not ravaged by thermonuclear explosions. This forced the Jaffa to move their forces to engage in a direct fight so as to gain orbital superiority, but the Aschen had deployed thousands of drones in groups forming a funnel to the main Aschen Fleet formation, so when the Jaffa Fleet tried to engage the main forces, these groups moved into position from the flanks to try and cut the FJN forces and overwhelmed them with numbers, and this forced the Jaffa to retreat without engaging.

The Jaffa forces pulled away, and the Aschen detonated another drone, wiping out a second garrison of Jaffa troops on the ground. Losing brothers in this way was having heavy moral repercussions around his fleet, and Ship Masters from many Ha'taks were already pressing Rak'nor to engage in a frontal assault. He was quickly running out of options. He couldn't risk losing Ha'taks without gains, but that was exactly what was going to happen if some of his ship masters decided to take matters into their own hands by pressing ahead into a glorified attack run against that number of drones. Only one was needed to break up formation for others to follow, so he had to make a decision, and he had to do that fast.

He weighed his options and made up his mind. He gave his order to Hai'rak, detailing every ship and glider movement as to force the Aschen to fight on his terms, and then he finished saying. " …, but don't do it until we are inside the funnel, and their drones start moving towards us, or they will pull away, and we'll be unable to engage. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Fleet Master."

"Attack!"

The Jaffa Fleet moved forward, heading directly towards the main Aschen fleet elements. Looking ahead, one could see the main formation composed of half of the remaining drones and the few Scouts, and flanked by a total of eight forward deployed groups of drones creating a funnel for the Jaffa ships to enter. That was where the FJN Fleet was heading. The Aschen waited to spring the trap. The Ha'taks, Al'keshes and Gliders pulled inside. The flanking drones dropped to the center while the main Aschen Fleet pressed forward.

"NOW!" shouted Rak'nor

Immediately the Jaffa Fleet turned 90 degrees to port. The ships repositioned themselves to face one of the forward deployed groups and pressed on to engage. They singled out a 1,000 drone strong group which was flanked by two other groups of the same size at several hundred kilometers away from it, and which moved immediately to cover the first one. Rak'nor had guessed this and had deployed a similar number of gliders to block their approach so that he could pound the first group without impediment.

3,000 gliders led the way, followed closely by the Ha'taks and Al'keshes. The main group of gliders broke in two, heading on a vector that would take them above and below the first drone formation, while the main Fleet pounded on the middle. The first gliders reached their designated firing positions and turned towards the drones, and fired before breaking away again. They repeated this several times to try an force the drones into breaking formation, before the main fleet got in range and started firing first their main guns, and some moments later their point defense cannons. The drones didn't bother in engaging the upper and lower flanking gliders, and accelerated to attack speed towards the main Jaffa Fleet. They took a little more than a hundred losses from the gliders, before they started taking damage from the FJN Fleet main guns and point defenses, but they still pushed forwards and close the distance to the capital ships.

On the left and right flanks, the situation with the gliders was completely different, as they were engaging the other two groups of drones head on, and then brawling their formations to force them to engage, so that the main fleet had more time to break away, while destroying the first drone group. This tactic forced the second and third group of drones to engage the gliders, and in consequence the Jaffa suffered heavy losses in this engagements, but gave time for the main fleet to take direct action on the first drone group.

On the main engagement, the first drone group was taking heavy damage by the fire-power of 228 Ha'taks and 514 Al'keshes. They were heavily outgunned, already outnumbered, and their lines were thinning very fast, but they had crossed the distance and the few hundred drones remaining had been fed with target data from the Aschen scouts. The first drone passed safely through a hail of green plasma bolts and rammed an Al'kesh head-on, detonating upon impact. The small Jaffa vessel disintegrated with the 135 PJ explosion.

Drones exploded all over, hit by plasma bolts that in some cases were bigger than the drone itself, but still many were finding their marks. The Aschen commander, seeing that the drones were arriving in small formations and numbers because of heavy loses, had decided to redirect the automated weapons against targets that could be destroyed easier. In this case the Al'keshes, but if some bigger formation made it through, he assigned it to Ha'taks, and some did.

Nearly 30 drones plummeted into a Ha'tak, synchronizing their fusion warheads to detonate simultaneously. The bright flash hit the shield which shimmered with force before fading out. The huge amount of thermal energy broke through it and hit the structure with extreme force. The Ha'tak broke in half, with almost all of its central area obliterated. Seconds later the liquid naquada of its weapon systems followed the same path and disintegrated what remained of the ship.

Finally the Jaffa Fleet passed through the lines of what remained of the first drone group. Ha'taks and Al'keshes brought down the few remaining Aschen fighters, and joined the forward deployed gliders in exiting the battle area. The gliders deployed at the flanks also disengaged, and raced behind the main fleet to rejoin them. The Aschen followed with all their forces, until they determined that doing so will only result in more losses and no gain. They pulled back and reformed their lines.

Only two Ha'taks were destroyed, but 87 Al'keshes shared the same fate. The first drone group lost a little more than a thousands ships, and was completely wiped out. The first group of gliders didn't lose a single unit, but the two flanking forces were heavily compromised, losing a little more than 1,500 gliders, while inflicting losses of almost half that number to the second and third drone groups.

The Aschen Fleet had gathered its forces in the same way as the previous engagement, but had replaced the losses from the forward deployed groups with units of the main group, which had reduce its drones from nearly 8,000 to a little more than 6,000.

On the Jaffa Fleet, Rak'nor was again weighing up his options. His tactic had worked, but the last engagement had cost him a lot of ships, especially in the glider and Al'kesh departments, and while he had destroyed nearly two thousand drones, the Aschen had the numbers to absorb that, while he did not. He somehow needed to engage the Aschen at long ranges, or the drones would devastate his fleet. The thing was that every time he approached to firing distance, the drone groups repositioned to force the Jaffa into the funnel, and only when he got into the middle of it would they approach to attack. He could certainly repeat the previous tactic, and success would most likely be with him, albeit with many loses, but using the same tactic again allowed the Aschen to develop a counter move that could jeopardize his approach.

He kept on deliberating, but found nothing he could do. If he had more ships things would be different, but not with the amount he had.

Another drone detonated in Tyl'mah's atmosphere, so circumstances forced him to order the same tactical approach. The FJN Fleet lurched forward towards the Aschen drone funnel, and every thing repeated itself. No new tactic from either side. The Jaffa engaged one of the drone groups, while the others tried to cut them off. The remaining gliders engaged again drone groups two and three, with the only difference being that drone group one was only engaged by Ha'taks and Al'keshes, as the number of gliders had dropped to a little more than 3,000, so Rak'nor had decided to split them into two attack groups to protect his flanks.

The first to engage were the staggered groups of gliders. They clashed against the second and third drone groups. The exchange of fire was heavy. The gliders outnumbered the drones 1.5 to 1, but they couldn't press the advantage as every time they wanted to gang up against a small number of drones, they detonated and caused more damage to the Jaffa formations. Only when the drones bunched up together did the Jaffa press on the attack, because if one detonated, they would certainly destroy the others. The fighting started to heat up when the Ha'taks reached firing distance.

A huge volley of plasma bolts streamed towards the first drone group. Many were destroyed, even with the evasive movements of the little Aschen craft. Losses mounted, but finally, and with great determination, the drones reached the Ha'tak and Al'kesh formation, and Jaffa ships started blowing up after being hit by fusion warhead equipped drones. After a few long seconds of heavy firing, the FJN Fleet was able to eliminate drone group one, and moved away, followed by the survivors of both flanking forces. All in all, the engagement ended up being almost similar than the one before. The Jaffa were able to destroy a little more than 2,200 drones, but losing in the process almost 2,400 gliders, 73 Al'keshes, and 5 Ha'taks.

The Jaffa Fleet retreated again. The Aschen reformed its groups from reserves of the center force, keeping the same number of forward deployed groups, but reducing the number of drones of the main group from more than 6,000 to a little more than 4,000. They still possessed the same tactical capabilities, because the center force had not yet engaged in combat, though if forced to do so, it had enough forces to inflict heavy damage to the FJN forces. Rak'nor knew this, and he no longer had enough gliders to protect his flanks if he wanted to use the same strategy. So now he had no other option than to change tactics or lose more Ha'taks than he could afford.

"Fleet Master. Ship Master Varnah wishes to speak with you." said Hai'rak.

Rak'nor nodded to Hai'rak, and the young warrior activated the main screen.

"Fleet Master. I'm sorry to interrupt." the strongly built warrior said.

"It's OK Varnah. What is it?"

"May I give a suggestion Fleet Master?" asked Varnah bowing his head.

"Of course. Go ahead." answered Rak'nor.

"I noticed that only drone groups one, two and three engaged our forces. All other groups kept their formations. I'm sure that's because they thought we were committed to the same strategy, but it also brings up the question if they are conserving resources?"

"You think they are low in fuel?" asked Rak'nor.

"That is my guess, or at least it's something for them to worry about. Only Aschen Capital ships use gravitic drives, but their drones use Plasma engines. That makes them cheaper to build, but it also makes them slow and resource intensive in prolonged fights, and they no longer have their motherships to return and refuel."

"What are you proposing then?"

"That we move our ships close to them, so that we force them to redeploy. If we move on a single group, they will move away, while the others will move closer to force us into the funnel. We won't get into firing range without being cut off by the other groups, but we can keep this up until we determine if they really have fuel constrains." answered Varnah.

"It's good advice Varnah. I'm only worried that other ship masters will follow suit, or if they'll break formation to try to save our brothers on the ground."

"I don't think there will be a problem, Fleet Master. I have to confess that I wanted to engage head on, and when you ordered us to attack a single group of drones, I was skeptical, but not after watching our losses. I believe that all Ship Masters know quite well now that to do so will mean the destruction of this Fleet."

"That's good to know. I'll give the order to break into smaller groups. We'll start harassing the Aschen without compromising Fleet integrity. Is there something else you wanted to add?" asked Rak'nor.

"No, Fleet Master." answered Varnah.

"That will be all then. Return to your duties."

"Yes, Fleet Master." answered Varnah bowing, while the screen returned to the tactical display.

"Are we going to follow Ship Master Varnah's suggestion, Fleet Master?" asked Hai'rak.

Rak'nor turned to Hai'rak, and answered. "Yes, but we are going to make it more interesting for them. Divide the Fleet by eight so we are able to engage every drone group. Let's see if they can reposition if we attack their funnel instead of their Fleet. Order all ships to fire at will, but have them keep their distance. I don't want unnecessary losses. We'll try to destroy as many drones as we can, but the goal is to keep them moving until they run out of fuel. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Fleet Master. I'm relaying your orders, now." answered Hai'rak while working on his command station.

Several minutes later the Jaffa Fleet started moving towards the Aschen forces. The Ha'taks, Al'keshes, and Gliders started separating slowly into eight groups. Each one composed of 27 some 28 Ha'taks, 44 or 45 Al'keshes, and 127 Gliders. The Fleet moved slowly so that they didn't require too much space to slow down and change course. This way, they would force the Aschen to move into range, whereas if they proceeded at faster speed, by the time they reached firing distance, they would take more time to change course, and would give the opportunity for the Aschen to close the gap.

The Jaffa formations were closing the distance. They started to make their attack run, when every drone group created an individual funnel, forcing every individual Jaffa formation to abort or fall pray to a drone group mini group. The Jaffa ships pulled away, and returned. In some cases their long range fire got lucky and destroyed a drone, but it was mostly a dance between both forces. The Jaffa using their superior speed to prevent the Aschen from harming them, and the Aschen used their superior numbers to always force the Jaffa ships into a funnel. The Jaffa used even smaller groups, and the Aschen created even smaller funnels, but by having superiority in numbers, they forced the Jaffa to retreat in every try.

This went for a couple of hours, and Rak'nor was about to pull his Fleet out of range when the Aschen drones in the atmosphere detonated one after the other, completely wiping out all Jaffa garrisons. The detonations caused massive fires on the surface of Tyl'mah were Jaffa forces had been previously deployed. But this wasn't a provocation to force the Jaffa to engage. Varnah's insight had been proven right, and soon drones that should have been retreating to avoid Jaffa weapons fire did not, and started falling prey to green plasma bolts.

The Aschen launched a last desperate assault against the FJN Fleet, moving their forces to try and surround them, but to no avail. Seeing this, and the critical fuel levels his drones had, the Aschen commander gave the last order of the battle. Many drones headed towards the location of the first fleet engagement and detonated on every big piece of Aschen capital ship left. If there were survivors among the wreckage, it didn't matter to them. Only the fact of not leaving anything for the Jaffa to study and reverse-engineer. Finally, as it was obvious that they would be unable to hold on to the planet, they detonated every stranded drone, and the Scouts opened a vortex and fled toward Nakgora.

The battle was finally over. The Jaffa were victorious, but it was a Pyrrhic victory. All ground garrisons and supply depots had been destroyed. They had sustained massive losses to its irreplaceable glider wings, as production was shifted exclusively to Batch 3 Ha'taks, making the originals even less powerful without its gliders. The knowledge that more than half of the Free Jaffa Nation's Fleet was required to barely defeat three Aschen CSV Battle Groups, when they had more than two hundred to call upon, was demoralizing, and even more if they took into account that their victory was more due to a surprise attack against the Aschen capital ships, and to the drones running out of reactants, than due to real strength from Jaffa forces.

But things were as they were, and the Jaffa Fleet settled into orbit deployed in defensive formations. Rak'nor knew now more than ever, that if Terran Federation produced Ha'taks were delayed in reaching the front lines, he'd be unable to hold the Aschen advance for too long. He had played his card, and came out victorious, but the Aschen now knew his tactic and would most likely not fall for it twice. He had to think of another way of stopping them, or he'd have to prepare his forces for a possible tactical retreat.

Time will tell, but for now damaged as it was, Tyl'mah was still Jaffa.

**Aschen Prime – Aschen Confederation**

**High Command Headquarters**

**December 15, 2010**

The loss of three CSV Battle Groups, and the first major defeat of the Aschen Fleet sent rage ripples throughout its governing body. It wasn't rage for finding one responsible for the defeat, as the Aschen society was focused on finding solutions, and not in assigning blame. The thing was that their pride had been slapped with a white glove, but a glove with a brick inside. The repercussions of the engagement would most certainly be huge, and decisions were already being made, that would most likely escalate the war with the Jaffa from a regional conflict to one of galactic proportions.

Inside the High Command Headquarters round meeting hall, the representatives of every confederated state of Aschen Prime, and those from the other planets, were gathered around the main circle of Admiral, whom had been discussing the Tyl'mah battle. They were there to view the decisions being made, so that they were able to later vote in favor or against them.

"... , and Admiral Nerrob Goyzem was killed in that ambush. As you saw on the post-battle analysis, Scout Captain Rada Keraz was able to rally all remaining forces. He inflicted heavy casualties to the Jaffa, but was forced to retreat and self-destruct his remaining drones because they ran out of fuel for plasma generation. Our forces lost 3 Command Space Vessels, 81 Escort Space Vessels, and every drone, while destroying 30 of their primary ships, 177 of their smaller ones, and more than 11,000 of their fighters. This shows that the three Battle Groups were more than enough to deal with the forces deployed by the enemy. They tricked us into thinking that their orbital fleet was everything they had to offer, and their strategy proved successful. Admiral Goyzem deployed his forces into attack formation, and set his drones to ship killer mode to engage that fleet. By the time he realized his predicament, it was too late. " said Fleet Admiral Eiru Mellom.

The meeting continued for several hours. Different strategies were taken into consideration. They analyzed the strength and weaknesses of the different course of action considered, and reached a conclusion on how to proceed. Admiral Mellom stood up and headed for the central podium, where he addressed the circle of representatives.

"Honored representatives of the Aschen Confederation. The deliberation is concluded, the course of action set. It is now your decision to back the proposal or not. It is as follows: We require the increase of the defense spending from the actual 7 percent to 23 percent, which is the level established that will not threaten the stability of our economy. The extra resources are to be used to expand our production capacity. To produce the number of transport and support ships required to bring the battle to Jaffa space. To considerably increase the number of scout ships, and scout missions to locate the Jaffa home worlds and their production facilities. To research, demonstrate, and validate a gravitic drive equipped drone, so that we can avoid being outmaneuvered by the Jaffa fleets, and finally to increase our number of combat vessels to move from reconnaissance to battle operations. It is your vote that will determine if the Aschen Confederation becomes a Galactic Super Power, by capturing what once was the Goa'uld domain from their pathetic Jaffa servants." He finished by bowing his head, and stepped down from the podium followed by the normal indifferent faces of the representatives.

The admiral took his seat, and the representatives turned their attention to the voting console in front of them, and pressed the corresponding button of their vote. Immediately after the last vote was recorded, the results appeared in everyone's console and on several main screens attached to the walls of the hall.

The vote: an unanimous YES.

Author's after notes:

- For those of you who haven't figure it out yet. The Aschen CSV is the ship seen in SG1's episode "Grace"

- It may seem that the engagement with the Aschen's main capital ships lasted just a few seconds, that's because it lasted just a few seconds. Please consider that I create the battle in an excel sheet (with the number of units involved it gets very big), and take into account fire-power by number of weapons, shield recharge rates and strength, drone launchers by launch times, hit ratios, etc, before I actually write the battle. I want every thing to be as real as possible, and I'm not going to change things just to make it last longer, or make it more dramatic, If ship X requires three hits from weapon A to be destroy, then that's what's going to happen, but still, I'll try to make the writing as interesting as possible.

- I read and re-read this chapter, and I have to accept that my writing quality is low. I wish I could write better. I hope to improve in the future so that I can provide a better read for all of you. Any way, thank you for following this story even with the writing quality I have, and thanks for my betas for the extreme work I put them on.


	8. Chapter 8

Authors Notes:

- Extremely technical chapter. Those Jack O'Neills reading are recommended to wait for the next one.

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Atlantis city ship, Federation Capitol**

**Council chambers**

**January 1, 2011**

Earth was celebrating a new year, and while it was a holiday for many, it was also the day when the new council members were sworn into service. After a year-long selection process, each sector had picked the people who had the most skills and were best suited for the job. The new arrivals where not lucky guys who had been in the Stargate Program since the beginning, and who happened to be selected because they were one of the best of the relatively few available in the SGC ranks. These new councilors were selected from the millions of Earth citizens who applied for the job. After intensive Asgard, and Ancient technology enhanced Avatar simulator tests, the ones who scored the best results were picked for the job. It wasn't a coincidence that most of them had already been working for the Terran Federation the year before, as they were the most qualified for the job, but there were a few exceptions where normal Earth citizens were selected due to their exemplary performance.

The room filled with the new councilors, and as soon as everyone was seated, Dr. Daniel Jackson addressed the assembly.

"Welcome everyone. I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson, head of the Terran Federation Ascension Department. I want to congratulate every new council member on a job well done. I for one know that I wouldn't have been selected if put through those extensive, and thorough tests." Everyone laughed at that. "You are very well aware of the goals of each sector you represent, but I was selected to put you up to date on the goals, and situation of the Federation as a whole. While it would have been better for Dr. McKay to explain this, someone thought that a less technical approach was required." Daniel took a small glance at Jack before continuing. "Please feel free to ask any questions as I move forward."

"The most critical element for the Federation survivability is the Tier system. Much of it is still on paper, or being researched, but during the last year we have made huge strides into its development. Throughout the history of every major space faring race, on the experience gained by fighting the Goa'uld, Replicators, Wraith, and Ori, or even Lucian Alliance, we have come to the conclusion that even the most powerful civilizations can be brought down, and not necessarily by an even more powerful opponent."

"The Tier system addresses many of the flaws or weaknesses experience by every civilization we have studied, which not only includes our enemies, but every race we know about, including the Ancients. It addresses technology security, tactical capabilities, and strategical concerns. All of these are related to the expansion and survivability of the Federation."

"Tier level 1 technology is applied to our research stations. At 250 people, they are the smallest population deployed to a planet. As such they don't possess strength in numbers which could salvage a tactical situation. For that reason we deployed technology that is widely available in this galaxy, and which, if captured wouldn't represent a grave concern. That addresses the technology security part as the systems used are already considered obsolete."

"The tactical capabilities of the research stations are only able to handle vessels like Tel'taks, Al'keshes, Gliders, Ori fighters, or ships of similar capabilities. If they are faced with stronger opposition, those bases are meant to be evacuated. In the strategical arena, and I mean only viewing it in strategical terms, losing one represents no significant loss, as the research stations are only used for planetary research purposes."

Daniel took a look at his notes before continuing further. "Tier level 2 technology is applied to our outpost worlds, which include our outpost cities, and most of the systems used on the Daedalus class vessels, which are no longer in production. From a technology security stand point, we use technology that allows an outpost city to cover its requested tactical capabilities. Shields are now based on Asgard technology, but are still not transphasic as those used on the upgraded Daedalus class. They are equipped with similar plasma pulse weapons like those used on the research stations, but their main weapon is a down-graded drone weapon system that doesn't include the transphasic capability. The cities tactical profile include the ability to engage a group of at least 3 Ha'taks single-handedly, while an outpost world with 32 outpost cities are able to handle an Ori warship. From a strategical point of view, Tier 2 planets are able to defend themselves without outside assistance, but are still dependent on outside help for evacuation purposes, as the 8,000 people on each city, and 256,000 on the entire planet, are unable to be evacuated through stargates unless given sufficient time to do so. There are many strategical scenarios which would render the strength of an outpost world useless without the need of massive or more powerful invasion fleets."

One of the new councilors raised his hand.

"Yes?" asked Daniel

"Sorry to interrupt Dr. Jackson, but out of curiosity, how could an enemy defeat those defenses without using superior firepower?"

"Well there are many ways to do it, but to mention a few: Send a stargate into the planet's sun which had just dialed another one close to a singularity, and you will most likely destroy the sun, and with it the surrounding planets." he smiled with a frown remembering what Sam did. "Detonate a tampered ZPM beyond weapons range of the planet, and you'll have similar results. This as you know is the main reason we have not replicated ZPM modules for our cities, and ships which will operate close to populated worlds. Instead we have relied on safe reactors as those used by the Asgard. Another way would be to use a ship equipped with a weapon with similar tech as that of the Dakara super weapon, and the non transphasic shielding would be unable to stop the blast. Well, in short there are too many ways. I hope that answered your question?" answered Daniel.

"Yes Dr., Thank you. But please tell me: Do the other tier levels take these things into consideration?" asked the same councilor.

"Of course. It would be unwise to develop a system designed for the survivability of our civilization, without considering every possible scenario. As I go forward in my explanation, you'll understand." added Daniel

"Thanks Dr., Sorry for interrupting. Please continue."

"Don't worry. Every question seeks an answer to solve a riddle, so they are all welcome." said Daniel slightly bowing his head.

"OK Tier level 3 technology is applied to our colony worlds, which include our colony cities and the Achilles class vessels. These last were supposed to be produced at our colony cities, but we accelerated their deployment through the replication facility to field a ship capable of engaging every known threat single handedly, as the Daedalus are powerful, but were found lacking against ZPM equipped Hive ships. This was the reason we had Tier 3 level ships before deploying Tier 3 cities, which by the way, an Achilles class vessel is currently replicating the replication system in Earth Outpost 1, which will allow it to grow into a colony in nearly a month. After that, every outpost city here on Earth will receive one, and will grow into a colony."

"Colony cities are capable of holding 256,000 people, giving a colony world more than 8 million people. Because of that, they have a more powerful set of tactical capabilities, which not only makes every single Colony city more powerful that six Achilles class vessels, but are the first to deploy replication systems, as well as the first to deploy a shipyard. They have a total of eight hangars for housing a similar number of Achilles class capital ships. A total of 16 ships will be fielded and maintained per city. Allowing for eight ships to be constantly fielded, while another eight rest inside the hangars, and act as an extra defence for the colony, and in case of a required strategic withdrawal have the internal space to have every citizen evacuated via starship. Their fire power is superior to Atlantis, but they are still not city ships, and require vessels for evacuation."

"Tier 3 cities also add better protection for strategical weapons or combat tactics. Each city has a total power output of 10 EW, and the 32 of them are able to deploy a full planetary shield. Once this shield is up, it has sufficient strength to absorb the fire power of 160 Ori warships main beams. It won't stop the blast of a sun's explosion or of a tampered ZPM, but it's capable of protecting against transphasic weapons, and those similar to the Dakara super weapon."

"This is our actual technological level. Tier 4, and 5 are still being research. Tier 4 cities which include the Excalibur, a Tier 4 capital ship design, are expected to be deployed in 2020. Those interested in knowing the technical specs of the designs, please talk to Dr. McKay. What I can tell you is that they are not only going to be far more powerful than our current designs, but these cities will be our first city ship design. They are going to be considerably bigger than Atlantis and far more powerful. They'll have a population capacity of 8 million, and will give our home worlds a total population of 256 million."

"On strategical terms, their planetary shield will have the strength to resist a tampered ZPM, and a sun's explosion, but on this last one, the planet's flora and fauna will soon die because of lack of solar radiation, but still the city ships will be able to immediately take their entire population into space, and onto another planet."

"Tier 5 cities or Fortress cities, which include the Mjolnir, a Tier 5 capital ship design, are expected to start deployment after the year 2050. Each of these fortress city ships are expected to be spheres of more than 20 kilometers in diameter. They will have sufficient space for 256 million people, giving each fortress world a population of 8 billion. They will not only be able to deploy an extremely powerful planetary shield, but by combining the power output of the 32 of them, will have sufficient strength to not only keep the shield up, but to open a hyperspace vortex, and keep it steady to move a full planet into another suitable star systems. This will effectively save all life on a planet if its sun is destroyed. But in case they are unable to do so for any reason, they are still city ships, and can fly away if necessary."

"Now all of these are good, but we currently have enough population for a single Fortress world. So in order to allow us to expand into other systems, and increase the space control by the Federation, thus allowing for demographic redundancy, we'll be deploying eight lower tier worlds for every higher one. For example: 1 Fortress World for every 8 Home Worlds, 64 Colony Worlds, 512 Outpost Worlds, and 4096 Research stations. We believe that by the time we are able to field a Fortress World, we may have enough population to fill every world of the example I just gave."

"Well that in short are the objectives for every Tier. Now, let me give you the actual status of the Federation. One year ago the Federation had a little more than a quarter million people, as Earth countries are still considered apart from it, because their differences were almost irreconcilable. Most of their people have no problem, but their governments do. Because of that, and once we acquired replication technology from the Asgard, we on the SGC, and Atlantis with support of those leaders with strong ties with the stargate program, decided to force the matter for a global unification. Each country was going to be respected, but the technology would have to be secured to avoid unpleasant situations from greedy or unscrupulous organizations. Thus the Terran Federation was born apart from Earth, but will grow until all people are united."

"So as I told you, one year ago we only had a little more than a quarter million people. Most of them here on Atlantis. Today, one year later, our population stands at nearly 8 million. 7.3 million in 29 Outpost worlds with 928 outpost cities. A quarter million here on Atlantis, and two hundred thousand in 848 Research stations. This year that number will be greatly increased, as we'll start deploying Colony cities, and forming Colony Worlds. It will take a lot of years, but the process has been started, and all human citizens will soon be part of the Federation."

"Our Fleet status stands at: 52 Achilles class vessels and 5 upgraded Daedalus class. In a few months the Achilles replication facility will cease production of Achilles class vessels, as they are now going to be produced at our Tier 3 cities, with a total of 16 of them to be deployed and maintained per city. The temporal replication facility from which they were built will most likely be dismantled, as we don't want to use Earth resources to keep it operational, and we don't want ships to be assigned to gather resources from nearby asteroid and bringing them to it. Ships assigned to a Tier, as the Achilles, and future Excaliburs and Mjolnirs will be produced at their designated cities, but production requirement outside the Tier system, like exploration ships, transports or every other requirement will be produced in orbiting replication facilities on resource worlds which are not suitable for colonization."

"Now, on relation to..."

**Dar Mah'Cal colony - Free Jaffa Nation**

**279.3 light years from Enyalius replication facility**

**January 4, 2011**

Dar Mah'Cal, a sparsely populated Jaffa world with a few thousand people, was located near the Galactic bar, and close to Enyalius. This world was the reason for the Enyalius replication facility to be built at its current location. It allowed to move ships from it to this system in a little more than 3 days. On January first, the first batch 3 Ha'tak was finished after 4 hours of replication, and as soon as testing was completed, it departed the facility en-rout to Dar Mah'Cal. During the next 3 days a total of 18 vessels were completed and sent to the Jaffa World. From now on, a constant caravan of 18 ships separated by 4 hours each would be heading its way, and the first was nearing the colony.

The Ha'tak made the transition to normal space, with a small human crew on board. The ship entered orbit of Dar Mah'Cal, and it immediately initiated communications with the Jaffa garrison.

"Dar Mah'Cal garrison. This is Free Jaffa Nation's shipyard engineering crew. We are ready to transfer control of Ha'tak. Ring transporter ready to receive ferrying crew. Commence transfer operations when ready." said a Terran Federation specialist disguised as a Jaffa.

A few minutes later a bright beam moved from the surface of the planet to the orbiting ship. The first members of the Jaffa ferrying crew arrived on board. Several minutes later, the full skeleton crew required to operate the vessel was ready to assume control. The humans disguised as Jaffa went to one of the hangars, and boarded the only available ship, an Al'kesh. The small human detachment left the Ha'tak, and moments later entered hyperspace en-route to Enyalius.

In orbit of Dar Mah'Cal, the Ha'tak accelerated away, and entered hyperspace. The ship set a course towards Dakara to reinforce it. Many ships had been sent to the front lines, and many Jaffa worlds were unprotected. The risk of Lucian Alliance attack was a concern, and the council had decided what to do with the 6 ships being delivered every day by the Terran Federation. One would be used to protect unguarded planets, or to replace older versions of Ha'taks on protected ones to send those to the front. Five would be sent directly to the fleet massing up at Tyl'mah. The ships were going to be ferried from Dar Mah'Cal to their destinations, and the permanent crew would be delivered to the ship from their training facilities via stargate on the world the Ha'tak had be delivered, and the ferrying crew would return via stargate to Dar Mah'Cal to repeat the process.

Enyalius was one of the closest locations of Terran Federation space to Jaffa and Aschen borders, but it was still more than 20,000 light years from Aschen space. There was a closer location from it at a little more than 15,000 light years, but that put the facility very far from major Jaffa worlds. The decision was made to use the location closer to Dar Mah'Cal as it was the most centered of the two.

The situation on the front was desperately in need of more ships. Ha'taks from Dar Mah'Cal would require 228 day to reach Tyl'mah. The Jaffa knew this and had been sending ships from all over FJN space to allow for reinforcement of the front line before the human built vessels arrived there. The thing was that they had been draining ships at an alarming rate, and there were few remaining to sent without seriously compromising internal security. The front would have to hold with what it had until these vessels start to arrive after 228 days at a rate of 5 per day. These would be follow by those built in the Jaffa shipyards, and after those days passed, a constant flow of ships would be arriving at the front, and hopefully modifying the situation of the FJN Fleet.

For now at least, the Enyalius replication facility was in full swing, and Dar Mah'Cal was receiving ships at a rate of 6 per day.

**Lantea's Orbit – Pegasus Galaxy**

**TFS-10 Achilles – Flag Bridge**

**January 17, 2011**

"... It is the nature of space, and the reason we are still alive and not overwhelmed by the replicators. We simply don't have the numbers to scout every star system in this galaxy, Rear Admiral." said Aegir, Commander of the Asgard Fleet deployed at Pegasus. "We have deployed our ships near human planets, but no Wraith have come. You have deployed your hyperspace listening satellites, and apart from a few hyperspace vortex openings, mostly from vessels belonging to the ones you call travelers, we have seen no Wraith. Maybe they are hiding or have been completely overwhelmed at the Battle of Olesia. Either case, I don't think they will pose a treat. We should keep sufficient ships to respond, just in case they are able to muster a few vessels for culling operation. But I wouldn't waste time scouting more than a billion star systems to search for the few Wraith that remain."

"With all due respects, Commander, you are saying that because you haven't studied the 100 year war waged by the Ancients and Wraith. The Ancients, the same as us, struggled to find Wraith ship cloning facilities. They fought a defensive war, thinking that their superior technology would overcome every attack. They started losing planet after planet to superior Wraith numbers. They decided to go on the offensive, and their ships were ambushed in a similar manner as they tried to ambush us at Olesia. A lot of technology was procured by the Wraith this way, including a huge number of ZPMs, which they used to power their cloning centers for even higher efficiencies. But in every practical matter, that didn't make a difference, as their numbers were already more than the Ancients could handle. They developed the drone weapon system to try and compensate, but their strength was already too low, and were forced to flee Pegasus. If we follow the same strategy, we may find ourselves facing hundreds of thousands of Wraith vessels, and that is something I'm not willing to do. If they enter hyperspace we can detect them with our hyperspace listening satellites, but if they are building up their forces to attack us in an overwhelming manner, then we must search for the cloning centers before they can do so." stated Caldwell

"The magnitude of the operation you are proposing can not be done with the resources at our disposal."

"It's already taken care off. It will take time, but we'll find them."

"I don't think you comprehend the number of systems there are to be scouted in this Galaxy, Rear Admiral" added Aegir.

"I do Commander. So do the scientists which developed the solution. Let me show you." said Caldwell

Caldwell activated the Holographic projector with his mind interface, and an image of the Pegasus Dwarf Irregular galaxy was displayed on it. The computer started to trace lines from every vertex of the galaxy and started placing distances in light years above every connecting line. Soon it started displaying some information on one side of the galaxy, and in view of both Caldwell and Aegir. It read:

Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy

Volume: 37,899,197,279 cubic light years.

Average stellar density: 0.0395 stars per cubic light year.

Estimated number of stars: 1,497,018,292

After the estimated number of stars was displayed, Caldwell spoke to Aegir.

"If we were to use the Beliskners, Achilles and Daedalus vessels assigned to Pegasus to scout this galaxy, and to round things up, lets say we have 300 of them. We then take into account previous experience, and estimate at least a week to scan every planet, planetoid, and body of significant mass to be use as a base of operation on every star system. It will take us ..." He used his mind inter-phase to use the computer for the calculation, and said. "... nearly 96,000 years. As you said, it's an impossible task with the resources at hand. But, we do have replication technology. If it would be as simple as building small automated vessels, we would already be sending them in mass to scout for the Wraith."

"But as you already know, the Federation has instituted a Tier system not only for our defence, but also for the protection of our technology. We just can't send automated ships out there, because the consequences of one falling into the wrong hands could be disastrous. Especially if we are going to use advanced hyper-drives to move ships from one galaxy to another. If that technology fell into Wraith hands, it will allow them to move to every Galaxy they want. Including ours. For automated vessels the Federation has allowed the use of Tier 1 technology for the Milky Way galaxy, as it is the standard level of technology used in it. But Tier 0 or technology inferior than Tier 1 level to be used outside of it. The reason for that is that we could not only give advance technology to hostile races, but we could completely alter a civilization with what they could learn by studying it. The consequences can not be predicted, so we seek to minimize any fallout by developing an automated exploration system which uses the least advanced technology capable of performing the required tasks."

"There were many proposed solutions, but this is the one we considered safest. Any way, it's the one we are going to start building, until experience determines otherwise." said Caldwell while removing the Pegasus galaxy from the holographic display and changing it by the image of a ship. On top of it was the name: Columbus Class Automated Exploration Vessel.

While the Achilles class were beautiful, and very advanced vessels, the Columbus class were not. If you didn't want to insult it's spirit, then you'd have to say that it was capable of performing the tasks assigned to it. In short, it was a box. 290 meters in length, 67.5 meters in height, and 55 meters in width. The vessel was separated in two mayor components. The ship, and the cargo module.

The ship started at the aft, where a total of 16 Ion propulsion engines were installed in a box like structure that was 55 meters per side, but 10 meters in length. On the dorsal area of the engine box started a 285 meter long by 10 meter in height, and 10 meter in width box. It was the hollowed spine of the ship. From this spine, a total of three pairs of clamps erected at the aft, center and forward sections. They went towards port and starboard for 22.5 meters, and then descended 55 meters. There was a single clamp closing the ship at the bow. If you were to look at the Columbus without the cargo module, it was only a spine with clamps and a flat but wide engine box. On the inner areas of the spine, starting at the aft section, and going forward for 40 meters, were three very obsolete but extremely robust hyper-drive units, that allowed the vessel to move at a speed of 3.65 light years per hour. Similar to a Ha'tak.

Following ahead of the three hyper-drives was the reactor room using another 40 meters of spine length. A total of sixteen 4 PW liquid naquada reactors with a total power output of 64 PW were deployed there. The ship hyper-drives could only channel 45 PW, so the rest of the reactors were a redundancy for the designed 100 year life span of the ship. Following the reactor room was a 200 meter long liquid naquada tank, with 20,000 cubic meters of space. The ship consumed a total of half a kilogram of liquid naquada per second at its 45 PW of maximum consumption, and with naquada density of 79 tonnes per cubic meter, the ship carried a total of 1,580,000 tonnes of liquid naquada. Enough to power the ship at full power for a little more than a century.

Covering the entire spine, and the clamps was a 1 meter thick hollowed structure that had a total of 13,000 cubic meters of space. This space was filled with mid 70s era computer systems, giving a clustered total processing power of 832 Mega MIPS. This allowed for a decent AI to be deployed on-board.

The cargo module was latched to the ship through the clamps. It had an internal volume of 812,500 cubic meters, and allowed for a total of 52,000 exploration satellites to be deployed inside, that with the standard distance between stars and average number of planets per stars, allowed for a constant exploration satellite deployment operation of a 100 years.

The ship was also covered with passive and active sensors of every type but of 90s vintage. All systems were integrated into the trinium structure. There were no walkways or catwalks. It was completely solid with the exception of the liquid naquada tanks, and the exploration satellite bays. This made the ship extremely rugged, and giving its redundant systems a very long life, only limited by its fuel supplies or its satellites. The fact that it was solid, meant that the ship could not be boarded. This limited the risk of technology falling into the wrong hands, even though the level of technology the ship carried was very low.

From the Asgard repository, the engineers who designed the Columbus took the least advanced shielding that allowed the ship protection from hyperspace radiation. It couldn't be considered a shield, at least not against weapons systems. It was more like a magnetic field, but designed to absorb particles that could affect the internal systems of the Columbus class. It would be completely ineffective against even a Jaffa staff weapon. Its offensive system complement was non existent.

"This is the Columbus class automated exploration vessel. As you can see on the specifications on the holographic image, the ship is the least advanced vessel we could design that could accomplish the tasks required of it." said Caldwell.

"Will you be using the ships to scan every planetary body in this galaxy?" asked Aegir.

"No. The ships are to remain permanently in hyperspace. They will open a hyperspace vortex to deploy a single satellite for every system. The ship will continue doing the same thing on other systems, while the satellite deployed first enters a polar orbit around the deployed star, and passively scans the entire solar system to determine the number of planetary bodies present. Once this information is gathered, the same ship or another one will open as many hyperspace windows are necessary to deploy the amount of satellites required on that system. This will allow us to have constant presence on 52,000 planetary bodies for every ship deployed, and will considerably reduce the number of vessels required to do the job." answered Caldwell.

"Still the number of ships required will be enormous." stated Aegir.

"If we average 10 planets per star system, which it's only a guess, we estimate we'll require nearly 300,000 ships to scan every planetary body in this galaxy in the 100 year life span of the ships. For Pegasus, and considering the threat the Wraith pose to us, we'll be deploying the number of ships required to scan the galaxy in no more than 50 years. We are looking at a fleet of more than half a million Columbus class vessels." said Caldwell.

"You intend to use replication systems to produce them?" asked Aegir.

"Yes we intend to use orbiting replication facilities to produce them, in a similar way as we are doing to help the Jaffa. One of these facilities could produce more than 400,000 ships in 50 years. We intend to produce multiple replication centers to deploy the vessels required to explore the Milky Way, and the galaxies beyond it. The first vessels produced by these stations will be assigned to Pegasus. We hope that in a few years we'll have the number of ships required to handle the job here, but how many years will depend on the number of replication facilities produced, which at the moment have not been mentioned." answered Caldwell.

"It is a primitive and simple solution, but an effective one Rear Admiral."

"Thanks Commander."

"Their hyper-drives are not capable of intergalactic travel. Do you intend to use the Beliskners and the Achilles to ferry those ships to this galaxy?" asked Aegir.

"Oh. No Commander. Let me show you." answered Caldwell, while removing the Columbus image from the holographic display, and replacing it by a total of 32 Columbus class ships connected from their spines to an octagon shaped 1,200 meter long structure. Eight Columbus on each side of it, followed by another eight, and another eight, and another eight. The name Saint Mary class intergalactic carrier appeared on top of it.

"This is an advanced hyper-drive unit. The same used on the Achilles class. The 32 Columbus class vessels attached to it provide the power required to max out the hyper-drive unit. It is in essence a carrier. It doesn't have sublight drives, nor reactors or any other type of common system in a starship. Everything required by it is provided by the exploration ships carried by the carrier. Once they enter hyperspace, it will carry the 32 Columbus to their destination. A few hundred light years outside of the targeted galaxy, the ship will exit hyperspace, and deploy all of the Columbus. The exploration ships will move away from it to a safe distance, and the Saint Mary will activate its self destruct. We'll be employing a far smaller version of the gravitic compression system you used to collapse Halla's sun into a super nova. Once activated, it will collapse the hyper-drive unit into a micro singularity, which will pull the rest of the Saint Mary's structure into it. A couple of hours later the small singularity will evaporate as energy into the surrounding space. Once the Columbus have had confirmation of this, they will enter hyperspace and initiate their exploration mission." added Caldwell.

"And everything is fully automated?" asked Aegir.

"It will obviously be supervised, but yes it'll be fully automated. That way it won't become a burden for us."

"What will happen to the ships, once they run out of fuel or satellites?" asked Aegir.

"When the ships expend their satellites, but still have sufficient fuel to carry on the mission, they will release their cargo module into a sun for it to be destroyed, and head for Saint Mary rendezvous areas to replace them with newly brought ones, but if they are close of running out of fuel, or have had sufficient system malfunctions to compromise its operational redundancy, then the ship will enter a known isolated star system, and head towards its sun, where it will be completely destroyed by the impact, the heat, and gravity. If for any reason the exploration vessel is unable to do this, it has a self destruct system added to its 16 reactors. We want it to self destruct into a sun, because that way we can guarantee its destruction. The self destruct added to its reactors, its just a redundancy, as pieces big enough could be found, and with them we'll risk cultural contamination."

"I was guessing that the satellites would link to this vessels to transmit the gathered information. How will you manage that, once the exploration vessels self destruct into a sun, Rear Admiral?" asked Aegir.

Caldwell changed the image of the Saint Mary, for that of the Columbus again, and said. "The Columbus main cargo module is the one that carries a total of 52,000 satellites. The majority of the ships produced will be build around one of them. But there are two more types of modules. We have the Command and Control module, which in essence is a 812,500 cubic meter AI, with the same computer systems used on the exploration vessel, but the added space will give them a total of 52,832 Mega MIPS of processing capacity. We expect to deploy at least 14 of this vessels per galaxy to create a sphere around it. They should have enough processing power to handle the volume of information being gathered by the satellites."

"The other Cargo module is a dedicated Communications system. It is based around a very small stargate to considerably reduce the power required on every connection. One designed exclusively for communications purposes. The reactors of the ships will allow for very long range mini stargate connections, but once the distances increase, the module uses most of its space for capacitors, designed to absorb the power of its reactors, and then channel this energy along with that produce with its reactors to make extremely long range connections. This will allow every exploration mission on other galaxies to download their scans via the communications dedicated vessels. At least two of them for redundancy purposes will be deployed outside of each galaxy being explored."

"Is there a version of this ship to deploy hyperspace listening satellites?" asked Aegir.

"I'm afraid not. The Hyperspace Listening satellites carry very advanced systems, which we prefer not to risk on galaxies where we can't respond fast enough with our warships. The size of the HLS is also a concern, as we could only fit two on an enlarged cargo module. If we require to install HLS on another galaxy, we may require to build an enlarged version of the Columbus, but the fact that as soon as a Galaxy is completely explored, it will mean that we'll have one satellite on every planetary body and stellar object of that galaxy, so we should have complete coverage, making the HLS redundant on those cases. Only if a galaxy contains a space faring race that doesn't need stars or planets to live in or for resources, then an HLS based warning system should be made available on that galaxy." answered Caldwell.

"I see, and what type of technology do these normal satellites carry? Is it enough to perform the scans required?" asked Aegir.

"These satellites are small. Two meters in diameter. Their outer surface is similar to that of an asteroid. The satellites don't have active scanning systems. They relay on passive scans only. Their internal systems are similar than those used on the Columbus, which given its computer technology, doesn't leave to much to work with. The satellites only detect emissions, and broadcast their findings via subspace without any type of processing done. All information is gathered by the AI enhanced Columbus, and processed before being rerouted to the Communication Columbus, which do the same towards the Milky Way, or a relay Communication Columbus via their mini stargates."

"There is also a gravitic drive inside the satellites, which allow them to reach any planet and orbit assigned to them by the AI enhanced Columbus. They also have two very small solid naquada reactors, leaving the rest of the space for capacitors. The satellites can function once in a stable orbit, and without using its gravitic drive, for decades with just their capacitors, so in essence, with their two naquada reactors used for charging the capacitors they could effectively operate for thousands if not hundred of thousands of years. In the event that they are taken by some race, any attempt to access them will active its self destruct, which consist of a controlled overload of its reactors and capacitors. The satellites will not explode, but will completely melt all of its insides, leaving its interior looking like that of a Geode."

"Hmm, If we would have taken this measures when exploring space, we wouldn't have had a problem with the replicators." said Aegir while sighing. "It is a good solution, Rear Admiral. I know that you will have to learn from its operation, and adapt the technology to make it reliable, but it is good that your people have taken such serious steps in guaranteeing the safety of the technology left to you, and also the safety of yourselves and your allies. When do you intend to start deploying them?" asked Aegir.

"Thank you Commander. If everything goes according to plan, then in a little more than two months." answered Caldwell.

"Good. In the mean time, we should continue our patrols of populated systems." added Aegir,

"I would recommend as much." finished Caldwell.

**HE-0437-5439 – Hyper-velocity star**

**Renamed Palos star system – 201,157 light years from Earth beyond the Dorado Constellation.**

**TFS-41 Enyo – Achilles class**

**Bridge**

**February 27, 2011**

The Enyo had been selected for this mission because of their experience in the replication of the Enyalius facility. The ship had arrived a couple of hours ago to the fast moving runaway star that was leaving the Milky Way Galaxy at a speed of 723 km/s. It was a main sequence B-type star with a mass nearly nine times greater than that of Sol. The location of the star was considered safe from prying eyes, as the hyperspace technological level of known races in the Milky Way Galaxy were only able to reach it after more than 5 years of travel. The Federation Tier 3 level sensor technology was more than capable of detecting known cloaking technology, but due to the dimension of the project it was better to be safe and keep the replication technology an unknown factor of Federation's capabilities.

The star had been renamed Palos in relation to the Port of Palos, as it was going to be the place of production of every Saint Mary class intergalactic carriers and Columbus class automated exploration vessels.

Captain Greg Woodruff had been supervising the scanning operation of the solar system, which had already determined that the star was its only member. The star analysis which included its physical characteristics and chemical composition was also finished, and the information had already been reported to him. The Captain had a good working relationship with his sensor officer, the very detail intensive Lieutenant John Perhar, and couldn't help asking.

"So, Lieutenant, how many ships are we going to be able to produce this time?"asked the Captain with a smile, while the entire bridge crew smiled and turned to look at Perhar. He was the laughingstock in this matter, but everybody respected him, and were always curious about the results. It wasn't that he was super smart, but it was almost as if he was because he was always connected to the computer via his mind interface. The thing was that he always came up with different funny statistics about any type of event.

The lieutenant smiled, and shook his head slightly. He boosted his connection to the computer, and made the calculations. "Well, if we were to produce only Columbus class vessels, which mass a little more than two million tonnes, mostly because of their liquid naquada supplies. We then divide that by the mass of Palos, which stands at 1989 Yotta tonnes. Then we'll be able to produce... Ehh. I don't know how to say it." he laughed his ignorance, and continue. "Well rounding things up, its a nine with twenty zeros, or using prefixes its 900 Exa ships. How do you say that?" so he checked the computer again and added. "Oh yeah. 900 trillion ships in the long scale, or 900 quintillion in the short scale."

"Well, Lieutenant. You managed a perfect calculation, but you also managed to leave me in the dark all the same." said the Captain, while every body laughed. The thing was that the number was almost impossible to imagine, but stubborn as he was the Lieutenant wasn't going to give up.

Perhar made another set of calculations, and added. "Let me rephrase it. If we are able to convert all the mass on Palos into exploration ships, we should be able to explore a total of 288 million galaxies the size of Milky Way.

The Captain's eyes rounded while frowning his forehead, and then said. "That's easier to understand. To believe that we could build so many ships and explore so many galaxies with the mass of a single star gets you wondering. One tends to think that the amount of resources on planets or stars are relatively small. Small in the sense that if someone asked me the amount of galaxies we could explore with the resources of just one star, I would never have been even close to that number. It's impressive. The more time I spend in space," he paused, and then turned to see Perhar and added, "and with you Lieutenant." every one laughed. "I feel smaller and smaller." The Captain stopped his wandering train of thought, snapped to attention and then said, "OK, people. We have a job to do. You know the drill. Lets get started."

With that order. Captain Woodruff set in motion what would become the biggest operation in Terran Federation's history for centuries to come.

The Palos replication complex would not be a single facility as that installed on Enyalius. It would be a massive complex, based on single replication modules that were to be spherically deployed around the star. They were to have shield generators that in conjunction would be able to en-globe the entire complex, including the star. The shield system would have an added cloaking capability. The replication modules would also include gravitic compression systems to avoid the star going super-nova when enough mass had been removed from it.

The combined power of the shield system planned to be deployed on the replication modules was powerful enough to keep out every known threat, but still every module was going to include offensive systems in the form of drones, fusion beams, and plasma-particle point defence pulse cannons, similar to those used on Tier 3 systems.

The number of replication modules to be deployed was not yet stated, but the huge area of exploration in the known universe, that included more the 40 billion galaxies, made the exploration requirements huge. So huge that it would be required to consume the mass of at least 160 stars similar to Palos in order to accomplish it. It was obvious that the initial stage of exploration was going to be nowhere near those numbers, but still, exploring a single galaxy was a daunting task, and the Federation not only had to explore Milky Way, but also Pegasus. These two galaxies, especially Milky Way which made for 99 percent of the star systems, would require more than 50 million Columbus class vessels to be completely explored. A production requirement that would make even a replication based production process a gargantuan undertaking.

At least 60 of this new type of replication modules were required to produce that amount of ships in a time period of 100 years. The thing was that not only producing ships was a problem, but as the exploration vessels kept deploying satellites, in time would make handling the communications and data storage requirements a very complicated matter. For that reason, the Federation had sent the Enyo only, which would be producing one of these replication modules every month. This would allow the Federation to test the entire system before sending more ships to increase the rate of expansion of the Palos Replication Complex, and the ships produced by a smaller number of facilities would be perfectly capable of handling the production requirements to explore the far smaller Pegasus Galaxy.

Inside the Enyo, Captain Woodruff seated in his command chair. One of the two Lieutenants handling the navigational controls turned to the Captain and said. "Captain."

"Yes, Lieutenant. What is it?"

"I was in the mess hall before my shift started. As I was entering it Dr. Tanaka was talking to another scientist whose name I don't know, but who asked 'Why can't we install dilation fields to the replication facility to have just one instead of building a huge complex?' I heard Dr. Tanaka say that it can't be done, but I couldn't hear the rest of the explanation. Do you know why it can't be done?" asked Lieutenant Abri Huguenot, a nice looking brunet of South African descent.

The Captain chuckled. "I asked the same before we were sent here. The thing is that time, energy and matter have a complex relation. I'm not a scientist, but what I was able to understand is the following: The replication systems use matter and energy. Matter is used to produce the product, while the energy from the reactor is used to transform that matter into the desired product. Well the thing is that if you were able to accelerate matter to the speed of light, it would become energy, and its time will stop. What happens inside a dilation field is exactly that. If you set the dilation field to its maximum, it will effectively convert all matter inside into a state of energy. Why we can't create a replication facility inside a dilation field? Well, that's because the energy created on the reactors is already energy and it can not be slowed down. Do you understand?" asked the Captain.

"Hmm. Nope." answered Lieutenant Huguenot.

"OK. As Lieutenant Perhar says: Let me rephrase it, by giving you an example. If we produce 1 unit of energy in standard time every second, and then we activate the dilation field at maximum, and lets say that for every second outside we have an equivalent of 100 years inside. Well outside we'll be able to produce 1 unit of energy per second, but inside we'll be able to produce 1 unit of energy every 100 years. You can't stop time for energy. Inside the dilation field you are converted to energy and in consequence your time stops. But energy is already energy so its time is already stopped, you can't reduce it even further. If it would be a mechanical process, then using a dilation field would be great, but not for a process that is dependant on energy production. Now do you get it?" asked the Captain

"I thinks so." answered the Lieutenant, but she didn't look very convinced.

"Do you remember the time when the Odyssey had to enter a dilation field to avoid being destroy by an Ori beam?" Woodruff sighed.

"Yes."

"Did it ever occur to you that they could have diverted power to the shields in that time? If they had done so, then when they deactivated the dilation field, the Ori beam would have struck a replenished shield. But they didn't. They didn't because you can't generate more power in any setting of a dilation field than that produced in normal time. Was this a better example?"

"Oh. I understood it before. It's just that it got me thinking. That's all. Thanks, Captain." Lieutenant Huguenot said as she turned back to her station.

"You're welcome, Lieutenant." the Captain muttered.

A moment later the Enyo's external replication systems started working at full power. It was expected that in a month the first of the Columbus class vessels would start coming out of the first replication module of the Palos Replication Complex. From then on a huge number of exploration vessels would deploy an even bigger number of reconnaissance satellites to give the Terran Federation not only a massive exploration capability, but also a well needed early warning system.

* * *

Authors Notes:

-Pegasus galaxy: I'm using Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy as the Pegasus galaxy in reality as the distance is the one that matches the one in the series. The information I gave is not shown in the websites, or wikis I searched, but I more less calculated the size, and stellar density from the apparent dimensions given in wikipedia.

-Density of Naquada? I have no idea. Iron: 7870 kg x m3, Uranium 19100 kg x m3, Osmium (the densest natural element) 22610 kg x m3, Hassium (element 108) 41000 kg x m3. So for designing the Columbus class exploration vessel, I had to invent the density of naquada. The element is obviously above 118 (Ununoctium) and has to be denser than Hassium. I decided not to give an element number as it wasn't necessary for designing the ship. But I gave Naquada a density per cubic meter of 79,000 kg. Why? Well, two Jaffa were required to carry weapons grade Naquada inside Aphophis prototype mothership. The naquada wasn't using more than 1,000 cm3 or a liter of space, so 79 kg per liter made sense to me. I could have round it up, but it sounded better this way.

-Columbus AI: I'm using a CPU with similar processing power as the 8086 processor (1 MIPS) that's why it requires 13,000 cubic meters of space to provide for 832 Mega MIPS. It is estimated that a human uses 100 Mega MIPS for their day to day life. I'm using this number as the base for a successful artificial intelligence, so eight times that number should be enough for a Columbus class vessel needs.

-Why Columbus, Saint Mary, and Palos: If you say to me think fast and answer, and then ask: Famous explorer. I'll instantly say Christopher Columbus (his native Genoese name is Christoffa Corombo), and as we are talking about exploration vessels, the name was fitting. Saint Mary (Its native Spanish name is Santa Maria) is the name of the caravel that carried Columbus to his destination, and was scrapped when it run aground. The Saint Mary class intergalactic carrier, will take its 32 Columbus to their destination, and then be disposed of, so again I though the name was fitting. I struggle a lot into naming them Columbus or Corombo and Saint Mary or Santa Maria, as the Terra Federation encompasses all of humanity, I thought that giving the original names was more fitting, but I liked how they sounded better in English. So Columbus and Saint Mary classes. The Palos star system is in relation to the port of Palos were Columbus departed from Spain.

-If you think some of the numbers I gave are wrong, please let me know. I do take my time in calculating everything, but there are so many numbers that I may have errors.

-Thanks for reading, and special thanks to my betas for making this story possible.

Devaro Ayanami Beta's Notes:

-I love reading these things. While I don't particularly enjoy maths, I don't hate them either, and the author makes it fun by using it in Sci-Fi context.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Eight**

**Tyl'mah – Free Jaffa Nation Colony**

**Ha'tak II – Bridge**

**March 17, 2011**

Fleet Master Varnah, who had been recently promoted from Ship Master due to his last battle combat advice to Rak`nor, was on-board a batch 1 Ha'tak. The crew knew these ships only as Ha'taks, but the construction workers had assigned the name of Ha'tak II, as it was the second version of the vessel being built since their independence. The new version designed with the help of the Terran Federation, and which was a batch 3 configuration had received the name Ha'tak III, as it was the third version to enter production. Batch 2 Ha'taks were never built.

The Ha'tak II had increased their point defense staff cannons from 48 to 192, and had replaced troop space with capacitors that gave a total of 3,750 Peta Joules of backup power compared to 1,250 of the original version. The ship had the same 50 Peta Watt reactor, so it could maintain the same shield strength as the original, but had 2,500 extra Peta Joules in its capacitors to help the shield system when it came under heavy fire.

The Jaffa Fleet had a total of 242 of the original Ha'taks and 164 of the second variant left; few of the last ones were new builds, as the majority had been upgraded from the originals. There were also 476 Ha'tak III available, but none were at the front. On Tyl'mah's orbit, Varnah had only 1 Ha'tak II, and 53 Ha'taks.

He stood watching the approach of the Aschen Fleet on the Main screen. They were coming with the same number of units as last time. He knew that those ships were more than enough to deal with the forces he had available, but also knew that he was just a diversion. He had been assigned with enough units so that the Aschen were forced to commit a strong force in the capture of the already abandoned colony. But even though he was only a diversion, he intended to give the Aschen a fight.

The first ships to make the transition into normal space were the Aschen scouts. 27 units were deployed all around the star system in an effort to detect a Jaffa ambush, but still they were only able to detect Varnah's units.

The combat vessels that included 3 Command ships and 81 Escorts, were approaching in staggered formation, and were already launching drones in hyperspace. The first CSV Battle Group made its transition into normal space just in front of Varnah's forces, but a little more than 20,000 km away. The Aschen arrived with a few hundred drones that had been launched in hyperspace. As soon as they completed the transition, the remainder started launching immediately.

It didn't take long for the 34,120 drones of that particular battle group to be launched, and as soon as the last one left its launch tube the Aschen forces lurched forward with the drones leading the way. The other two battle groups remained staggered in hyperspace blocking any Jaffa reinforcement.

The Aschen Fleet moved with determination towards the Jaffa orbital forces, and as soon as the first drones entered firing range, the big guns of the Ha'taks started firing. Several drones were destroyed, but the number of them approaching made it irrelevant, and the Jaffa Fleet started moving away to avoid interception. The Aschen pressed forward, and this forced Varnah to order his units to break orbit, or otherwise be overwhelmed.

As soon as the first CSV battle group succeeded in removing the Jaffa forces from orbit, a second Aschen battle group made the transition into normal space to block the Jaffa retreat. These vessels didn't jump in close formation, but were separated far and wide to block every exit route. They hoped to defeat the Jaffa with superior number of drones.

For Varnah, the situation was becoming increasingly complex. The plan had hoped for the Aschen to deploy their forces in one single move, but to keep their drones close to avoid an ambush until all of them were launched. But it seemed that they wanted to add some variability to the game, and were forcing the Jaffa to fight on their terms. Varnah ordered his Fleet a break through, and had his vessels head towards a single Aschen escort ship, an escort ship that had nonetheless launched its total complement of 936 drones.

Varnah kept the Jaffa Fleet advancing towards this single escort and its drones, and while all Aschen ships in normal space were vectoring towards him, they were not going to reach him before he would be able to break through. The Ha'taks started firing and were facing the Aschen drones without glider escort, as they had none available. Many drones fell to the Ha'taks point defenses, but they didn't have enough ships to avoid being hit by them in ship killer mode, and soon the first Ha'tak was destroyed when more than thirty drones plummeted into it. The first hits depleted its shields, and the following ones smashed into its structure, breaking it apart. The ship disintegrated when following drones detonated inside it.

As soon as the Aschen commander saw that the Jaffa Fleet was committed, and couldn't escape to hyperspace without risking their vortexes collapsing to fusion detonations, he ordered the last battle group to jump in close to the engaged escort.

The glow of the fusion explosions on the leading Ha'tak started diminishing when twenty eight jump vortexes opened behind the escort the Jaffa were facing. The new arrivals formed a wide umbrella of ships which started launching drones.

The Aschen commander had played his cards right, and Varnah new that it was over. He had intended to fight a battle in withdrawal with constant maneuvering, but it was now obvious that the Aschen had no intention on repeating the last engagement. He should have known that, and his short sightedness had already lost him the battle. He just hoped for a miracle to get his Fleet out of this mess. But with the Aschen units converging from all sides, he had no other options but to lose the fleet facing them, or try to escape to hyperspace to fight another day. Seeing that there were no more Aschen ships in hyperspace, and hoping that enough units were able to make it through the drones to avoid a massacre, he ordered the last, and ships prepared to make the transition.

The Jaffa Ha'taks broke formation, and started heading in different directions to confuse the Aschen fleet. As soon as enough distance was made between each other, they opened up their vortexes, and started entering hyperspace. Plasma pulses from the Ha'taks struck many Aschen drones, but many of the little automated weapons made it to their designated targets, and were able to destroy a couple of Jaffa ships. But worst of all, they had been able to destabilize the majority of their vortexes causing their vessels to explode with the collapse of their hyperspace openings, or to abort the procedure and stay in normal space unable to retreat.

The stragglers knew it was over, and made the best effort to reform so that they could at least bring down a few of the Aschen Capital ships. They felt the strength of the combined weapons fire of the Aschen Capital ships, and of their deadly ship killer drones. Soon every Ha'tak still in normal space was overwhelmed and destroyed.

In Hyperspace, Varnah's Ha'tak II, and 11 Ha'taks were able to make the transition, and were moving away of Tyl'mah licking their wounds. 42 Ha'taks had been destroyed while they had only been able to destroy 3 Aschen Escort Space Vessels, plus several hundred drones; the majority of these last ones when they struck the Jaffa ships.

The FJN lost Tyl'mah, and the Aschen settled into orbit in defensive formations. While losses for the Jaffa Fleet had been heavy, the ships deployed had been necessary to draw a strong force from the Aschen, which they did in the form of 3 CSV Battle Groups. Now it was the Jaffa Fleet under the command of Fleet Master Rak'nor which was setting its sights on their target.

**Hyperspace – Near Nakgora, former FJN colony.**

**Ha'tak II – Bridge**

**That same time …**

After the first battle of Tyl'mah, Rak'nor knew that he would not be able to stop the Aschen a second time with the ships he had at his disposal. He knew he had to somehow delay the Aschen into venturing further into FJN space, as a couple of Jaffa colonies were relatively close to Tyl'mah. He had barely managed to stop the Aschen with all of his available forces, and things would get even more complicated if he had to defend more than one at the same time.

From Terran Federation intelligence, he had seen the huge logistical build up in Nakgora. The ships that were attacking Tyl'mah had been refueled and launched from it, and every scout ship assigned to explore Jaffa space were also being resupplied there.

If he intended to reinforce his Fleet, he had to stop the Aschen to allow more time for newly built units to arrive.

A few weeks ago.._. He stood before the Jaffa Council suggesting to evacuate worlds close to Tyl'mah, leaving just small garrisons to maintain control of the planets, while he was able to replenish his forces for a counter offensive:_

"_If the Aschen keep this up, they'll be able to locate our colonies close to Tyl'mah. We need to evacuate them and leave small garrisons to keep control of the planets. We don't have sufficient ships to protect even one of them if the Aschen attack in force. We need to pull back to reinforce our Fleet, and then strike back when our forces are sufficiently strong to do so." said Rak'nor._

"_There are more than a million Jaffa living on Ahknet. That colony can not be evacuated without the use of our Fleet. Do you suggest that we use our Ha'taks when we need them most to evacuate a colony?" asked U'kin_

"_No. I intend to use Ahknet as the new Fleet staging area. All Ha'tak III are currently heading towards it. But we can't risk losing ships protecting the smaller colonies, because if the Aschen locates Ahknet we'll be unable to stop them."_

_At that moment Colonel Cameron Mitchell, who was acting as liaison between the TFI (Terran Federation Intelligence) and the Jaffa Council, and who was allowed to enter council proceedings when they discussed the war with the Aschen, raised his hand to call for attention._

"_Yes, Colonel Mitchell. Do you wish to address the council?" asked Teal'c._

"_If I may Teal'c, yes."_

"_Please, go ahead, Colonel." added Bra'tak._

"_Thanks, Master Bra'tak." said Mitchell and then turn to address the council. "Terran Federation Intelligence has been analyzing different scenarios to allow your forces time to reinforce. They believe there is a way for you to slow the Aschen advance, and they've asked me to give you that suggestion. You all have seen the forces the Aschen are amassing at Nakgora. They are definitely preparing for another attack on Tyl'mah. Fleet Master Rak'nor is correct in that he'll be unable to defeat the Aschen again without reinforcement, and I concur with him that evacuating the smaller colonies and concentrating your forces on Ahknet is a wise course of action, but there is another way to avoid risking the people of Ahknet. If the Aschen detect the other colonies before Ahknet, the strategy will work perfectly well, but if for some reason they detect Ahknet before the other closer colonies, then I don't think there would be too much your Fleet will be able to do to stop the Aschen, and risking more than a million people to that bet would be a little irresponsible to say the least."_

_Mitchell turned now to Rak'nor to address him directly, and said. "The Federation recommends for you to attack Nakgora..." he wasn't able to finish when U'kin interrupted him._

"_Attack Nakgora! I'm sorry Colonel, but it seems you haven't been paying attention to what we have been talking about. We do not have the ships to defend Tyl'mah from another attack, and you want us to strike at their current stronghold. They will annihilate us." said U'kin very upset, but Mitchell raised his hand again._

"_Please let me finish Master U'kin, and you'll understand."_

"_This is a waste of time Colonel. There is no way we can defeat them in Nakgora with our current forces, no matter how good strategists your people may be." said U'kin defiantly._

"_Please, let Colonel Mitchell speak. I also agree that risking more than a million Jaffa is not acceptable. I want to hear what he has to say." added Ka'lel._

"_Please, Colonel Mitchell, continue." said Teal'c._

"_Thanks, Teal'c." said Mitchell and then turned to address U'kin. "You are correct, Master U'kin. The Jaffa Fleet doesn't stand a chance against the current Aschen forces at Nakgora. But I wasn't suggesting an attack on their fleet. As you all have seen from intelligence reports, Nakgora is the logistical hub for Aschen forces operating in the area. I suggest that you keep a strong deterrent on Tyl'mah to force the Aschen to attack it in force. Once you have confirmation that their Fleet has entered hyperspace en-route to Tyl'mah, you could send the bigger portion of your fleet approaching from another vector, just to strike the logistical hub."_

"_The Aschen defense Fleets would most likely position themselves in front of the depot. We'll lose our fleet trying to approach it." said Rak'nor._

"_Not only we will lose the Fleet, but there is no honor in attacking their supplies. We will face them as warriors, but Nakgora is not the place. We must protect Tyl'mah at all costs. We must face them there." added U'kin._

_Mitchell disregarded U'kin's comment for a moment, and concentrated his attention on Rak'nor. "That's exactly what they'll expect. Use your fleet in a frontal action without slowing, while concentrating your fire on the depot. Once the Aschen forces commits, you'll move your ships all around the Aschen while continuing firing into the depot. That will force them to redeploy on all sides to be able to cover the depot from your units, while forcing your Fleet to disengage. Once that's done, you'll take a sheet of Aschen strategy, and you'll apply it to themselves. You'll use automated cloaked Tel'taks to deliver a Naquada bomb, and then self-destruct each transport at a container."_

"_Self-destruct our Tel'taks? Just to destroy containers? That will not only be an honor-less fight, but a waste of perfectly functional ships, not to mention weapons grade Naquada reserves." stated U'kin._

"_I don't find a fight or strategy to protect your people honor-less, Master U'kin, on the contrary. As for expending ships and resources to stop the Aschen advance, You are right. You'll require to expend more than two hundred Tel'taks to do the job plus any ship lost in the diversion. But if Jaffa forces are able to destroy that depot, it will set Aschen operations back for at least 5 months, and in those months we can produce more than 900 Ha'tak III, which will not only replace any type of losses incurred, but will heavily reinforce your forces at the front. If you seek to engage them in a standard fight in Tyl'mah, you'll not only lose that colony, but your entire Fleet, and by the time you have enough Ha'tak III available, the Aschen could be using bio-weapons on Ahknet. You'll lose millions of people, your fleet, and what little initiative you have left."_

_U'kin was left with an open mouth, and unable to answer, so Mitchell seized the initiative and added. "I'm not here to dictate any course of action, I'm just here to give a recommendation. We have studied the situation thoroughly, and we believe this to be the best course of action with the forces available. It'll obviously be your decision. Its your people in Ahknet. You'll decide what's best for them."_

_This last comment reached Ka'lel, and she said. "I will not support any strategy that doesn't take the security of Ahknet in mind. I haven't heard any other recommendation that deals with this other than that offered by Colonel Mitchell and Fleet Master Rak'nor. If there isn't another one, then we have to decide whether to evacuate the smaller colonies and reinforce Ahknet, or to slow the Aschen advance by eliminating their supply depot at Nakgora. If its my decision, I would definitely vote for the Tau'ri's recommendation. Is there any other strategy to consider?" she waited for a few seconds, and as no one answered, she added. "Lets vote then."_

"_I'm not willing to surrender Tyl'mah to the Aschen without a fight. That will not only embolden them, but will put their forces almost 1,500 light years deeper into our territory. We must draw a line. They must not advance further." said U'kin._

"_That's exactly what we all want. But we have to consider the consequences of every strategy. I don't want to surrender Tyl'mah to them, but what few Jaffa remained in that colony had already been evacuated. We'll only be losing a planet that we can retake later. For the moment, we have to decide how best to protect the other colonies while we gather our strength. I have to agree with Ka'lel, the Tau'ri's strategy will hurt the Aschen, and secure our position the most. I vote for it too." said Bra'tak_

"_Hurt the Aschen and secure our position? That will only happen if Fleet Master Rak'nor is able to destroy that depot. If we are unable to do that, our situation will be even worst." added U'kin._

"_Not necessarily, Master U'kin. If I understood Colonel Mitchell, then we should be able to keep the fleet almost intact, as it will only be used as a diversion. If we are unable to destroy the depot, we could still send the majority of our ships to Ahknet, before the Aschen could locate and reach it." stated Rak'nor._

"_Do you think you could be able to destroy it, Fleet Master?" asked another council member._

"_There is a lot of planing to do, but if we are able to force several of their battle groups to attack Tyl'mah, we should be able to outmaneuver the Aschen Nakgora's defenses to allow our Tel'taks to reach the supply depot with sufficient numbers to at least considerably damage it." answered Rak'nor._

"_Then I support Master Bra'tak and Mistress Ka'lel on their vote." added the same councilor._

"_As do I." added Teal'c_

_Soon, they all voted for the Terra Federation strategy. Even a grumpy U'kin voted in favor to avoid losing political power. _

_During the next couple of weeks, the Aschen had been constantly monitoring the situation in Tyl'mah with permanent scout patrols, and had deployed more scout ships in line of approach to Nakgora to be able to scan the entire area. Rak'nor had pursued these ships, but had avoided the risk of engaging them in hyperspace. He left a Fleet in Tyl'mah's orbit under command of Varnah, and had moved his other vessels to his new fleet staging area at the colony of Ahknet._

_Rak'nor waited patiently, and soon a Terran Federation Achilles class vessel under cloak had detected the Aschen Fleet at Nakgora entering hyperspace, and heading towards Tyl'mah. He received this intelligence via the Jaffa Council, and was later confirmed from long range scans from cloaked Tel'taks in Nakgora. He signaled his Fleet to enter hyperspace, and to head at full speed towards the Aschen logistical hub. A total of 18 Ha'tak II, 149 Ha'tak, 343 Al'kesh, 238 Tel`tak made the transition, and started their long march towards the uncertainty of defeat or success._

_It took more than two weeks of travel, but their faster speed allowed them to reach Nakgora from Ahknet at almost the same time the Aschen reached Tyl'mah. The Aschen forces at Nakgora had detected their approach through their long range sensors, and were waiting for them with two CSV Battle Groups with all of their drones deployed. They were in defensive positions in orbit of Nakgora with the supply depot and several dozen transports in between them. The Jaffa were facing 2 CSV, 54 ESV, 18 SSV and 68,240 drones._

**Hyperspace – Crossing Nakgora's Heliosphere boundary**

**Ha'tak II – Bridge**

**March 17, 2011**

"This is it, Hai'rak. Signal the Fleet. All ships ready for battle." ordered Rak'nor from his command chair.

"Yes, Fleet Master." said Hai'rak while working at his console.

"The Aschen Fleet is deployed as expected. We'll follow the attack plan to the letter. Order all vessels to maintain current speed and make the transition on the assigned coordinates." added Rak'nor.

"As you command, Fleet Master."

A few minutes later the Jaffa Fleet made the transition into normal space. Hundreds of jump vortexes opened in front of the Aschen forces with just a few hundred kilometers from the frontal deployed drones. The FJN ships made the transition without slowing, they carried their momentum from hyperspace. Soon the green light of thousands of plasma pulses from Jaffa staff weapons filled the space between fleets. The Jaffa ships were heading at their maximum speed towards the Aschen forces which had the planet on their back. If they continued on their current heading they would undoubtedly be unable to pull out, and would end up crashing into the planet.

Many of the Aschen drones accelerated towards the Jaffa, and when a considerable mass of the automated weapons were reaching the FJN lines, the Jaffa started spreading outwards creating a circle formation that would allow them to bypass the Aschen Fleet and the planet, while being able to constantly fire their main weapons against the supply depot. The Aschen caught the Jaffa strategy, and ordered the drones farthest from the Jaffa to move away to try to intercept them. Every ship, Jaffa and Aschen were moving outwards in a circle. The Aschen were pressing from the inside to try and cut them off. The Jaffa were desperately firing their heavy weapons towards the depot, and their point defense staff cannons towards the drones, while the Aschen fired their capital ship heavy weapons, and made interceptions with their drones leaving the supply depot in the middle.

The Jaffa started taking losses. The first Al'keshes were destroyed when single drones detonated on them. A few Ha'taks suffered the same fate when wave after wave of Aschen fighters impacted on their shields. But the Jaffa didn't relent. They kept on firing, but the constantly increasing distance to the depot made the majority of the shots to fall short, or to reach highly dissipated to their targets. The damage being made was very low, and the casualties they were taking, high.

"How much more Hai'rak? Talk to me." asked Rak'nor as his ship was rocked by several impacts from Aschen bolts.

"Almost there, Fleet Master. The Aschen have almost cleared the perimeter of the depot." answered Hai'rak with tension in his voice.

"It'll have to do. We can't wait any longer. We are taking to many loses. Have the Tel`taks charge through the middle." ordered Rak'nor. Hai'rak didn't waste time, and sent the commands.

Advancing under cloak in a direct line of approach to the supply depot were 238 Tel`taks. The ships had been rigged with automated systems, and a 9 Exa Joule 100 plus kg weapons grade Naquada warhead. The Jaffa had been able to lure the Aschen into thinking that they were the main element of the attack on the depot, and had forced them to engage with all their vessels to keep them away from it. But the reality was that the killing blow was to be performed by the smaller Tel`taks.

The ships had jumped in through the Ha'taks' jump vortex under cloak, and had slowed slightly to allow for the fleet to set the trap. When the Motherships and Al'keshes started firing at the depot they set their throttles at full. They were now moving unengaged towards their objective, but as soon as the distance to the depot shrank, the advanced sensors of the CSVs picked them up.

The Aschen tried to rectify their mistake by redeploying their drones, and by switching fire into the approaching Tel'taks from their capital ships. But their drones didn't have the speed to turn the tables, as the small Jaffa transports speed was too great now. There was nothing to stop them from crashing into the planet now, only the Aschen supply depot and transport ships. The few shots that the CSVs and ESVs had been able to fire had only been able to destroy a little more than a dozen of the Jaffa stealth ships.

The first Jaffa Tel'tak reached one of the Aschen transports and exploded with enough energy that could have taken the shields of three Ha'tak III. While nuclear explosions in space were no where near as destructive as those made in an atmosphere because of the lack of gas shock-wave displacement, the amount of weapons grade Naquada used made the explosion very powerful, and was sufficient to disintegrate the transport in a thermal flash. The spherical energy shockwave dissipated quickly, and was only able to scorch the surface of nearby transports and containers, as the closest ones were still more than twenty kilometers away. Far enough to avoid being destroyed, but on space distances, they were still considered tightly packed, and the mass of approaching Tel'taks soon started ripping everything apart.

One after another, the Aschen's containers and transport ships were destroyed. Nakgora's orbit was illuminated simultaneously by dozens of massive nuclear explosions that dwarfed the smaller ones from the drones hitting the Jaffa Fleet, and from numerous hyperspace vortexes from the fleeing FJN Fleet.

The Aschen supply depot was in shambles. The 39 transports ships that had been loading and unloading containers had been completely destroyed. Almost 80 percent of the containers had disappeared in thermal flashes. There were still a little more than 50 containers that had survived the attack, but those lost represented a terrible setback for the Aschen, as they had three CSV battle groups in Tyl'mah that needed resupply. The logistical operation had barely been able to fuel their reconnaissance missions, and with so many ships out there that required refueling and maintenance, the loss of so many containers, not to mention the transports would certainly delay their operations.

The time gained in this operation would allow Ha'tak III reinforcements to reach Ahknet with sufficient numbers to guarantee the safety of the relatively heavy populated colony, and allowed the beleaguered FJN Fleet to replenish its strength with sufficient ships to counter Aschen forces without requiring heavy maneuvering. For the Jaffa, it was an outstanding victory, but it had come at a price. 1 Ha'tak II, 29 Ha'taks, 72 Al'keshes, and 238 Tel`taks had been lost. The losses at Tyl'mah had also been high, and the colony was now under Aschen control, but thanks to their daring attack, the Aschen war machine was effectively stopped.

* * *

Author's Notes:

-Especial thanks to my Betas for making this story possible.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note:**

I'm sorry for the delay, but this chapter really cracked my head. It's only a merger chapter so not much action, but I needed to add it.

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

**Palos star system – Terran Federation's space**

**Palos Replication Complex**

**March 29, 2011**

Beyond the run-away star, the Milky Way could be seen. It didn't look bigger than 10 centimeters from the star's perspective. This had given the star a lonely past; as it was surrounded only by the void of intergalactic space. Now though, it was no longer alone. Its new companions were small, and Palos burned brightly, dwarfing and dimming them, but there they were. Zooming in a little, one could clearly see thirty four small dots in the orbit of Palos, three bigger than the other thirty one. The biggest of the dots was the TFS-41 Enyo, followed by the first Saint Mary class intergalactic carrier, and finally the first Palos replication facility or PRF-1. The remaining thirty one smaller particles were Columbus class exploration vessels.

From a distance it didn't looked as if anything was going on around them, but, getting a closer look, one could clearly see that there was not only activity, but a lot of it. The Enyo was relatively close to PRF-1, but still more than twenty kilometers away from it, and the lone ship had its external replication system working at full power creating PRF-2. On the other side, PRF-1 was working with even greater power than could be handled by the Achilles class vessel. The facility was built with experience gained from the Enyalius facility. It was bigger, it had nearly eight times Enyalius' power out-put, and was heavily armed. But it was barely more than a big stack of GENFRs reactors, and transporter and replication emitters. With the power it possessed it could produce a Ha'tak III in a little more than half an hour, and a Columbus in one. While the exploration ship had more than 8 times less volume than a Ha'tak, the amount and density of the liquid Naquada fuel it carried made it twice as massive.

On top of PRF-1 the bright white light of replication emitters was producing the thirty second Columbus class exploration vessel, and below it the bright blue light of transporter emitters was moving matter from the star into the exploration vessel. It took an hour, and the last Columbus required to max out the first Saint Mary was ready.

TFS-41 Enyo …

"Sir! The last Columbus is ready," said Lieutenant John Perhar from his sensor station.

"Good." said Captain Woodruff.

"Sir! We have a message from PRF-1. They say that the Columbus AI activation and testing is done, and the vessel reports all systems operational. They are requesting permission to activate combined AI mode for Saint Mary integration."

"Tell PRF-1 control that they are green on Columbus and Saint Mary integration."

The message was sent, and while PRF-1 had already started replication of a second Saint Mary class carrier, the first one was being slowly approached by the first thirty two Columbus. The exploration vessels slowly approached their carrier at the maximum power of their extremely inefficient ion propulsion. It took time, but the explorers reached their designated latching positions, and started using thrusters to make the final trajectory adjustments to safely latch themselves into the Carrier.

After a few more minutes, all the Columbus were finally integrated into the Saint Mary, and the thirty two AIs linked each other into a single one, immediately setting the Naquada reactors at full power. The energy started flowing into the carrier's hyper-drive unit, and a few seconds later the ship entered hyperspace and set a course to the Pegasus Galaxy.

On board the Enyo, Perhar addressed the Captain. "Sir, the Saint Mary has entered hyperspace, and the AI has linked itself to Exploration Command."

"Good. They'll take it from there. If everything works fine, in a few months there will be more Achilles assigned for PRF replication duties, and some of those facilities may also be tasked into producing more of them. If the communication system design proves adequate to handle the requirements from all those Columbus, then will be seeing the exponential growth of this Complex." finished the Captain.

**Pegasus Galaxy – 327 light years beyond the rim.**

**Half an hour later...**

The hyperspace vortex had just closed. The Saint Mary carrier made the transit to Pegasus, and the transition to normal space without any incident. The combined AI relinquished control, and the thirty two Columbus regained their autonomy. The ships started detaching themselves from the carrier. First, the eight ships at the front, followed by the eight behind them, and so on. It took more time for the exploration vessels to detach from the carrier and reach a safe distance than it took the Saint Mary to reach Pegasus from Palos.

The thirty two explorers made a sphere of ships more than 100 km in diameter around the Saint Mary. All their sensors were active and scanning the surrounding space for any intruder. They all sent the self destruct signal, even though only one was required to activate it. From the outside of the carrier no explosion was seen, but soon the central part of the ship where the advance hyper-drive unit was located collapsed on itself, and soon the entire 1.2 km long ship started disintegrating into the small singularity, which absorbed all its matter.

The Columbus had positioned themselves at a safe distance, but even there they had felt the gravitational strength of the singularity. Their active sensor systems had been heavily distorted, but their passive ones, including their opticals were still operational, and the AIs had seen the disposal of their carrier, and were then ready to depart. One after another the ships started entering hyperspace. First, a total of fourteen Columbus with their Command and Control module headed towards their designated areas to created a sphere around the galaxy to manage every Columbus explorer. Second, a total of sixteen Columbus with satellite modules made their way into hyperspace and headed towards Pegasus to start their long exploration mission. Last, a single Columbus with the Communications module entered hyperspace to settle itself in another redundant area close to Pegasus.

The last communication Columbus would stay until the singularity had evaporated into the surrounding space, and once that was done, it would enter hyperspace to locate itself in another area close to Pegasus. It could stay there, but if someone had sensors powerful or advanced enough to detect faster than light particles or emissions filtered to hyperspace from the singularity, it was better for the ship not to be present if they arrived.

For Pegasus this was not a concern, as there were no known race capable of doing so, but it was protocol. The Federation didn't know what was beyond known space, and they couldn't risk being exposed to an unknown hostile race.

The disposal of the Saint Mary class carriers was considered a waste for many, but if there was a possibility for an advanced hostile race to piggyback on it towards Federation space, the consequences could be catastrophic. That was why the Saint Mary was designed with only a hyper-drive unit and dependent on the carried Columbus for operation, and was also why they were to be disposed off. The Federation had made this consideration thinking of Replicators. One could easily attach itself to a carrier, and bring an extremely serious threat to the Milky Way. While Federation was confident of winning a war with a Replicator-level threat, human imagination dictated that potential threats could be far worse. That was the reason for making them disposable. Once the exploration vessels left our space, there was no coming back for them.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Terran Federation space**

**Hyperspace – Near Sol star system**

**TFS-70 Orion – Achilles class**

**April 7, 2011**

The Orion had been acting as fast response ship in orbit of Earth. The hyperspace listening satellite network had detected a hyperspace vortex opening in a sector were no Jaffa or Terran vessel was known to be operational. Terran Federation Command had dispatched the Orion to verify the identity of the unknown contact, a contact that was inferred from the hyperspace opening.

Lieutenant Commander Stoletov, who had been on-board the Musashi during the RS-27 crisis situation, was walking beside Captain Cassie McCall, both clad in CAES (Combat Armor Exo Skeleton) as it was common practice in fast response ship for every crew member to use one. They were heading for the Flag Bridge, also called Battle Bridge.

"I'm almost certain it's a Lucian Ha'tak. I want your teams ready for boarding action, Lieutenant Commander." said Captain McCall.

"Yes, Ma'am. They're already assembled." replied Stoletov, just when they where arriving at the first check point, which protected by two guards and the standard security systems, including a massive shielded blast door. "I have assigned some additional crew members as backup, just in case we encounter a strong presence of Lucian personnel on board." he added.

Captain McCall handled the standard authentication process to access the Flag bridge corridor, and saying as the shield went down and the massive doors started opening. "As many as you need Lieutenant Commander. Just secure that ship fast and safely. Since the deployment of the Hyperspace Listening Satellites, we have captured more than two dozen Lucian vessels without complications. Still, I don't want your team to underestimate a threat."

"We never do, Captain." said Stoletov as they walked through the Flag bridge access corridor to the second checkpoint that led directly to the Flag Bridge. The two of them passed through the second set of shielded doors after inputting their corresponding authentication algorithms.

"Bridge, this is the Captain. I have arrived on the Flag Bridge, and I'm assuming command." said the Captain through her CAES mind inter-phase, quickly received an acknowledgment in reply from her XO. She immediately started filtering data from the combat information system, and knew that the Orion had crossed the thousands of light years between Earth and the contact in very short time. Her XO had already detected 'said contact' and was shadowing the vessel under cloak. As she suspected, it was a Ha'tak, and the passive sensors were identifying it as a standard one. She knew that the Jaffa had all of their standard models at the front with the Aschen, or en-route towards it. This was definitely a Lucian Ha'tak, or if the Goa'uld were still out there, possibly one of theirs.

"Lieutenant Commander, you know the drill. As soon as we force the Ha'tak into normal space, we'll take out their shields and beam your teams over immediately. Inform me when you are ready, so that we may begin the operation."

"Yes, Captain." said Stoletov, saluting, turning around, and moving towards the access corridor.

Several minutes later, the Captain received confirmation and gave the order to begin. "Ten to one for the Flag Bridge dilation field Lieutenant. Commence the operation."

The dilation field inside the Flag Bridge was activated with a ten second inside against one second outside configuration to allow for ease of coordination. The Orion positioned itself in front of the Ha'tak.

"Prepare tractor beam and ready the ship for transition." ordered the Captain while her crew focused on the task at hand. They had done this several times, and mastered the procedure. No input was required from the Captain even though she still gave it.

Lucian Ha'tak Pel'tak ...

"We have lost every single Ha'tak that has entered hyperspace. Not a single one was able to send any kind of transmission as to the reason of their disappearance. This is the last ship we have remaining. I have said over and over that we should have stopped Ha'tak operations until we are able to shed some light into what's happening." Varro said to Kiva and Dannic.

"I'm tired of waiting for incompetents to shed the light you so much seek, Varro. I should have done this long ago. We'll now see what mystery beholds us, or if its only an internal power play." replied Kiva in a suspecting tone.

"An internal power play? What are you talking about?" asked Varro, while Dannic turned his eyes to Kiva frowning.

"After we lost the first few ships after entering hyperspace, I assigned you two to secure bridge and engineering positions on our remaining ships with loyal members. I'm now beginning to think that that was probably the decision you wanted me to make. Is it possible that this situation was planned by both of you to remove me from command?" Kiva demanded clearly paranoid. The crumbling of the Lucian alliance under her command had deeply affected her.

"What?" yelped Varro.

"Are you questioning my loyalty?" snarled Dannic.

Kiva pressed a button on her command chair, and four guards entered the Pel'tak weapons trained on both Varro and Dannic.

"We'll soon see if I'm wrong, and for your sakes you had better hope I am. Otherwise, once we reach our destination, I'll ask you both to surrender the location of my Ha'taks, or I'll torture that information out of you." she finished.

"You can't possibly think we had anything to do with that." Varro roared.

"Oh! But I can, and I ..." Kiva couldn't finish her answer when a bright light filtered through the main window, and the ship rocked as if being struck by something. Immediately a Hyperspace vortex formed in front of them, and her ship was forced to transition to normal space in the void between stars.

The vortex closed, and the Orion released the tractor beam. At the same time, as four secondary fusion beams struck the Ha'tak shield in non adaptive configuration, and on an angle that didn't compromised the Lucian vessel. The shields of the Ha'tak were set at low power to avoid hyperspace radiation and were unable to hold even a second against the strength of the secondary beams of the human ship. The beams buckled the shields and went on safely into space without hitting the structure.

Inside the Lucian Pel'tak four flashes of light appeared on its four corners, but Kiva was only able to see some blue pulses hit her guards, the operator, Varro and Dannic. Not a second later she watched with a bewildered and confused face as one of the blue pulses headed her way, and then nothing.

TFS-70 Orion …

Captain McCall didn't need to hear or ask for a report, as she had the relevant information being filtered into her CAES' combat information inter-phase. She knew that the Ha'tak was secured, and that the internal sensors of the Orion had identified the position of every Lucian crew member, and its transporter system was already working into securing them into the Lucian ship's brig.

"Lieutenant, tractor the ship and set a course for the Alpha Site." ordered the Captain.

"Yes Ma'am." replied the helm officer.

The Orion activated its tractor beam on the Ha'tak, and a few seconds later entered hyperspace. The ship traveled with the Lucian vessel under tow for several thousand light years, and reached the star system where the Alpha Site was located in less than a minute. A few second later, it entered orbit of the Alpha Site with the Ha'tak in tow, and released it close to three other Ha'taks. Those Ha'taks were being prepared as those that preceded them for delivery to the FJN, as the Federation had no need of captured Lucian Alliance motherships.

Captain McCall sighed inside her CAES, and turned to her sensor officer. "Lieutenant, I want that ship scanned to its bones before deactivating our jammers. I don't want any trojan beacon system activating." she said referring to previous Lucian's attempts of installing beacons to locate their missing ships after several of them had been lost. Those attempts had met with failure as the sensors installed on the Achilles class vessels were quite capable of detecting them, and adding that they scanned the entire ship and compared it to those the Federation were replicating for the FJN, they were able to quickly identify anything that was different or out of place. It took some time, as every Goa'uld/Jaffa made Ha'tak had little differences between them that made them unique, but it wasn't hard to do.

The Orion stayed in orbit while its crew completed the scanning/cleaning operation. After that, they created an inverted dilation field covering a small empty area of one of the hangars, and transferred the unconscious Lucian personnel inside it. The field had a configuration of one minute outside for every second inside, that way they guaranteed that their current prisoners weren't waking up until they reached the rehabilitation facility.

The Captain received the all green from the Lucian crew transfer, and she turned to the navigation officer. "Helm, set a course for the rehabilitation facility." Then to the communication officer. "Inform the Alpha site that they now have control over the Ha'tak."

"Yes, Captain." answered both officers not in unison.

The Orion broke orbit of the planet and entered orbit of one of its moons. The smallest of the two moons currently orbiting the planet where the Alpha Site was located, which hadn't been named yet, was the location of the experimental rehabilitation facility. The ship positioned itself above it in a geostationary orbit.

The rehabilitation facility was based on the Tier 1 Research Stations. It had the same defensive and offensive systems used in them, but it had some differences including higher tier levels of technology. The main one, was that it was prepared to function like a starship, as it was in a barren moon without atmosphere. There were no windows, and it was hermetic. It was completely sealed off. Inside it, the layout of the base was the same, but the equipment was completely different. Many rooms were filled with horizontal stasis chambers stacked one after another, with more than 100 individual units per room. The facility had the capacity to hold more than a thousand people in stasis, and almost 70 percent of the pods were in use with Lucian Alliance personnel held in stasis.

Other rooms were made into super computer spaces, giving the base one of the strongest processing power in the Federation. The computing strength was required to operate the simulation environment. They were similar to simulator units employed by Terran Federation Personnel, with the difference that the mind-computer inter-phase was extremely boosted from the computer side. The amount of processing power allowed for an entire life worth of simulated living experience in under an hour of normal time.

The process of rehabilitation started when the prisoners, which in this facility were called patients, even though they were forced ones, had their memories downloaded upon arrival. They were then moved to the pods and placed in stasis. The facility had the capability of rehabilitating a total of four patients at the same time, so their memories were analyzed first for intelligence purposes and second for rehabilitation ones. The intelligence gathered was sent to TFI (Terran Federation Intelligence), and then used to determine the rehabilitation process to be followed.

Once the process was determined, the patient was released from stasis and moved to one of the four rehabilitation rooms. There they were connected in a bed to the mind-computer inter-phase, and were subject to live a whole life from being born to their deaths, only that their deaths will be similar to those they took. They were to have nurtured lives to give them meaning, but they would end them the same way they ended those of their victims to gain consciousness of their acts.

Each full life would only last for less than an hour of normal time, and in between them, the patient would be shown to a simulated personal quarters to reflect on what they had lived, while another one enters the simulation. The process would be repeated until their subconscious was able to break through their current way of thought, and into a peaceful life in which they'd gain the subconscious illumination required to stop the process.

For Lucian Alliance personnel, the process added one more variable. Once they had reached the level of subconscious illumination required to stop the process, they would have their simulated conscious memories removed, and be left only with their real life experience. They'd be placed in the simulators again mimicking their current life, letting their subconscious memories guide them out of the Lucian Alliance no matter the amount of time required. Once they left it, memories of going through a stargate with several others, with enough supplies, reaching a populated world, and going to rest for a while in the nearby woods would be added. Once that was done, they would be disconnected from the simulation and moved in an induced sleep towards the planet of their memories placed with sufficient supplies in the woods, where Terran personnel would wait under cloak until they awaken.

The rehabilitated person would then seek a life of meaning on its own, without having lost their current life memories. They, on their own way would have to live with the knowledge of what they had done, and try to meld with the local population to start a new life, or return to their worlds and families with the knowledge that the Lucian Alliance was extremely weakened and unlikely to act against them.

On the Orion, Captain McCall transferred command to her XO, and walked away from the Flag Bridge. Once outside the transporter shielded area of the Flag Bridge, which ended just a few meters away from the second shielded blast door coming from the bridge, she requested via her CAES' command link to be transported to the rehabilitation facility's command and control center. A flash of light took her away and materialized her into the facility's C5IS (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Combat systems, Intelligence and Simulators) Center.

"Captain McCall." said Commander David Telford standing besides the Captain of the facility. He was previously a Colonel before the new Terran Federation ranking convention.

She turned to look at the rank in his uniform and replied. "Commander."

"I'm David Telford. Terran Federation Intelligence. I'm assigned to counter Lucian Alliance operations with TFISOCOM, Ma'am" he added saluting, and referring to Terran Federation Intelligence Special Operations Command.

She saluted back. "At ease Commander. I thought that the TFI had only technicians in this base, and that the intel gathered was analyzed elsewhere. Are you adding an intel detachment here?" she asked in reply.

"No, Ma'am. But we do come here from time to time. I have also assembled a team to accompany you in freeing Lucian Alliance personnel." answered Telford.

She nodded and turned to the Captain. "Captain Ortega. It's good to see you again."

"Likewise, Captain." replied Captain Adolfo Ortega. An ex member of the Brazilian Army, he was Brazilian born, but from a Spanish Father, and an Italian Mother. He had a lot of experience in multicultural environments, and coupled with his high regards in the Brazilian army earned him his command on the rehabilitation facility.

"How many people have been rehabilitated?" asked Captain McCall.

"We'll have the hundred you are to free in a couple of hours." answered Telford.

"Most of them are good people who had been forced into joining the Alliance. They have only required a couple of simulated incarnations, mostly to gain the psychological strength to free themselves from the Alliance." added Captain Ortega. "But some of them are true monsters. We have one currently linked in," he said pointing to one of the monitors that showed patients in their beds. "that has been placed through more than 20 simulated lives, and he is barely showing signs of improvement. He has been linked for more than a day now."

"Was he someone important?" asked Captain McCall.

"A soldier named Simeon. He normally acts as body guard for high ranking Alliance members. But he had a very long history of atrocities well before joining." answered Captain Ortega.

"Was he in one of the ships captured by the Orion?" questioned McCall again.

"No. He was brought by the Orestes almost two months ago." stated Ortega.

"But he had knowledge of ground and space operations well beyond of individual Lucian commanders." added Telford.

"How so?" asked McCall frowning.

"He was constantly assigned between commanders. It seems he had a knack, for lets say questionable missions. Those that even the most hardened of Lucian soldiers would be unwilling to do. The good thing about all of this, is that his memory download proved crucial in dismembering the Alliance. As a matter of fact, if our intel is correct, and we strongly believe it is, the ship you just captured was the last one they possessed, and carried in it the last of their commanders." answered Telford. He then smiled and said. "It seems that you have just closed the Lucian Alliance chapter Ma'am."

"Thanks, Commander." said Captain McCall trying to sound matter-of-fact, but couldn't help to show a sheepish face.

She stayed until all transfer documents were signed, and then until the to-be-transferred Lucian personnel had been put out of stasis and into an induced sleep. She beamed directly into her quarters to change out of her CAES. Commander Telford stayed in the rehabilitation facility to verify that the top brass of the Alliance had indeed been finally captured. A total of 20 TFI Special Forces personnel also beamed into the Orion to accompany a total of 100 now ex-Lucian personnel, who had been put into a dilation field inside sleeping bags and their supplies.

The Orion entered hyperspace, and in less than a minute arrived to their first release planet, where it made the transition to normal space under cloak and behind a gas giant to mask its hyperspace vortex. The ship approached the gate equipped habitable planet, and settled into orbit. All the security precautions taken were not necessary as the planet held a very small human population, but protocol was protocol, and some of the other planets they had to venture to were Jaffa worlds, so it was better to play it safe, and avoid alienating an ally.

10 of the ex Lucian Alliance personnel plus 2 TFI special forces were beamed down inside some woods close to the gate. The ex Lucians were deployed in different sleeping positions, and the SpecForce units stayed close by under cloak to protect them during sleep. One by one they started waking. They gathered for a moment to inform the others what they were doing. Some returned to their homes, some started a new life on different planets, but all left the Lucian Alliance for good.

The Orion visited another 9 planets to deliver the remaining rehabilitated personnel, and ended its mission by returning to Earth.

**Terran Federation Space – 21 light years from Sol**

**Gliese 892 star system – Stargate designation P4X-351**

**Icarus Base**

**June 21, 2011**

The Icarus base planet was special in that it contained a solid Naquadria core. While solid Naquada cores weren't uncommon in planets originated from Super Nova explosions, as the elements created during such events ended up being very dense. Almost every world that contained some amount of Naquada in its crust would most surely have at least huge quantities in its core, or have a core completely made of it. What made P4X-351 special was that its core was almost completely made of the heavier and unstable Naquada isotope Naquadria, which was the reason it had been chosen for the location of Icarus base.

Naquadria was only produced during a Super Nova event, and because it was radioactive and unstable, it quickly decayed into Naquada after several hundred thousand years. This was the reason that only Naquada was found in nature; such planets had already lived at least several million years since its materials were formed in a Super Nova. The reason for P4X-351 especial condition was that the Naquadria contained in it was created after, by transforming its stable Naquada core through a strong interaction with several highly concentrated bursts of subatomic particles which triggered a chain reaction that catalyzed the conversion from Naquada.

The proximity to pulsars or to Nova or again Super Nova explosions in nearby system could release the amount of subatomic particle concentrations required to trigger such an event in crust contained Naquada, but not enough to reach the core. With P4X-351 that was not the case as there was nothing close by that could have triggered the event, and the Naquada in its core was shielded by several thousand kilometers worth of crust and mantle materials. That led to the belief that the Naquadria on the planet was formed through artificial means, and it was strongly suspected that the Ancients upon returning from Pegasus could have been responsible for creating the Naquadria with the intention of using its decomposition into neutrinos to power up a stargate to allow for very long connections. This suspicion was based on the fact that the facilities encountered on the planet were reminiscent of Ancient designs, and that the Stargate had a especial connection to a neutrino capture machine which channeled the energy into the gate.

Current Terran Federation knowledge through the use of the Asgard and Ancient repositories suggested that the use of extremely coherent streams of subatomic particles directed at the core could have triggered a Naquadria conversion event. But while the theory existed, the reality was that the Naquadria was there, theory or not.

Nearly a year ago, the base made its first dialing with a ninth chevron. They knew that the energy requirements for a connection of this type would be enormous as the Ancients wouldn't have bothered to do this while having ZPMs available to do the job. They estimated that the distance to the targeted stargate could be in the hundreds of millions of light years, and had determined that the core would stay stable for the entire dialing process. Little did they know that the distance was in the tens of billions.

It was a wise decision forced into the head of the operation, a Dr. Nicholas Rush by the Science and Technology Department., that before any attempt to dial was made, a force of Achilles class vessels would be deployed in orbit to be able to deploy a gravitic compression field. The same type of field used by the Asgard to collapse Halla's sun. It was deemed necessary in case the energy requirements were even bigger than what the core could handle, and it was this decision that barely saved the day. When the connection was made, it was obvious that the distance had been miscalculated tremendously, and the reactions in the core destabilized very fast. Only the immediate shut down of the gate, requiring a physical disconnection from the neutrino feed allowed for the planet to regain its stability, and only the gravitic compression field deployed by the Achilles class vessels allowed the Icarus base scientists enough time for the disconnection.

After the first dialing sequence, the team devoted its time to the study of the power management system, and concluded that the gate itself drew power from the core through the neutrino capture device which excited the core Naquadria into reacting upon itself in a cascading decomposition just like what happened in a GENFR reactor, with the difference that the Core's Naquadria was not in a state of plasma and was heavily contained by the massive pressures of the core. It needed a constant outside source to trigger the neutrino decomposition, and this was done through the neutrino capture device emitting subatomic particles into the core, and the more power the gate needed for the connection, the greater the amount of subatomic particles emitted into the core.

The neutrino capture device normally activated when the first chevron was dialed, and as more power was required, the device used the neutrinos received to increase the reaction even further by increasing the amount of subatomic particles sent into the core. The amount of Naquadria to Neutrino conversion process was so huge to dial at so great distances that the amount of energy released was stronger than the Core's pressure, and that was the reason why dialing the ninth chevron almost destroyed the planet.

The problem was with the use of a single Neutrino capture device, and even though such a device moved the stream of subatomic particles along the surface of the core, it was still limited to a single face. The solution was to install several other devices to cover the entire surface of the core, and then add several orbiting neutrino relay satellites to gather the energy captured by the devices and channel it into the Base grid and into the gate.

The solution proved somewhat successful as during the second trial they were able to keep the gate up for a minute until the instabilities started to slowly mount, requiring shut down of the gate to avoid the core reaction to spiral out of control.

During the months that followed, a low scale reconnaissance mission of what was now determined to be an Ancient vessel, was performed through the use of automated systems until a permanent solution to the instabilities could be found, and until a way to bring the crew back was also developed. It was this day that both solutions were going to be placed into effect.

Eli Wallace was sitting outside the base on one of the sand bags with his back to one of the cliff walls. He was admiring the view, and relaxing a little. He had a notebook on his lap with a page opened where one could see hundreds of formulas and algorithms. He normally used an electronic one, but he also liked to crunch numbers on paper, especially when he wanted a little nature time.

"So, Eli. What's all this fuss about the new toy you are installing?" asked Ensign Vanessa James, who used to be a Second Lieutenant before the Terran Federation new ranking convention.

"What? The stargate?" asked Eli in return.

"No, no. The little box they are connecting in the Stargate room." answered Vanessa.

Sub Lieutenant Matthew Scott laughed at this and added. "It's a stargate."

"No. The little box." stated Vanessa again.

"It's a stargate." replied Eli and Matthew at the same time, and laughed an instant later to their simultaneous answer.

"A stargate?" she turned to see Eli and then Matthew shrugging. "You are both kidding me right?"

"Hmm. Nope." they both answered in unison again, and laugh.

"Why would you want to install a stargate the size of a shoe box?" asked Vanessa.

"Well, it's actually micro sized, you would barely be able to see it. The rest are other type of systems necessary to move people back and forth."

"To move people back and forth. You are kidding me again right? But wait, wait. Why would you want to make a small stargate when you have a perfectly functional normal one?" asked Vanessa gain.

"Power requirements. The big one consumes a lot of energy." answered Eli.

"Why don't you install a ZPM. I know they are banned on populated worlds, but you could ask for a dispensation to use one here."

"Because we would need to install dozens of them if not hundreds" stated Eli.

"What? Why? They only needed one to dial Pegasus. How much more energy do you require to dial to that spaceship?" asked Vanessa in curious shock.

Eli turned some pages in his notebook, and passed it on Vanessa. "The first line is the amount of ZPM percentage per second we would consume to dial it, and the second is the amount of Naquadria in the core being converted into energy to do the same."

"Point one three five. Point one three five ZPMs per second to dial that ship?" read Vanessa from the notebook.

"Yes, and as I said we would need dozens or hundreds connected at the same time as we can't discharge one that fast, or it would explode taking the planet with it. Not to mention us." added Eli.

Vanessa read the second line, and added. "753 tonnes of Naquadria per second to do the same?"

"Yep. You now know why the planet trembles so much every time we dial that ship. It's not much compared to the mass of the planet, but the energy released threatens to overcome gravity which keeps the reaction in check. If we were to convert that Naquadria without gravity, the entire core would decompose itself in neutrinos in a massive explosion. If we are not careful, that is exactly what could happen." stated Eli.

"Well, then. It will still be better to use ZPMs." said Vanessa.

"If one malfunctions, it's 'Hasta la vista' bye, bye, planet. Bye, bye every one. Its better not to risk it if we have another way."

"I didn't know that we were using the same energy to dial that is required to destroy a planet every second" added Matthew shrugging, but still not too interested in the conversation.

"Oh, no. It's not the same. Not by a long shot. A ZPM could normally produce more or less 50.16 Yotta Joules of energy before it's depleted, which is almost equivalent to 12 million Giga tonnes worth of TNT, but you need more than 7,000,000 Yotta Joules to destroy a planet. That's more or less 140,000 ZPMs worth of energy. But the thing is that when one explodes, the dimensional breach created releases a far greater amount of energy that what it contains, and it could, in theory, wipe out even a small star."

"Ha! You just invented those numbers, right? No way you knew that from memory." said Vanessa with wide eyes.

Eli laughed a little. "Well, the numbers are not exact, as every planet would need a different amount of energy depending its composition, but talking about an Earth like planet it's a close guess."

"So why did they say during the Cold War, that we could have destroyed the world several times over with the nuclear weapons deployed by the States and the Soviets? If I'm correct we never got close to even matching a single ZPM." asked Matthew.

"They said that?" asked Eli with an incredulous face. "If they did, they might have been refering to the surface of the planet. You need a relatively small amount of energy to make a planet lifeless compared to destroying one. The weapons that the US and the Soviets fielded were probably enough to do that several times over, but destroy a planet? No where near the amount needed." answered Eli, and before he could continue the conversation his radio activated with Dr. Rush voice.

"Eli, we are about to begin."

Eli grabbed the radio while standing from the sand bag, and answered back. "I'm on my way." he turned to Vanessa and Matthew, and added. "Sorry guys, I have to go."

"I'm going with you." replied Matthew. "I'm curious if that micro mini gate will work."

"Ha! And I'm stuck with guard duty." Vanessa added while Matthew and Eli walked away from her shrugging. A few second later and they were out of view, and she added in a low voice watching the cliff. "What am I guarding here when there are Achilles in orbit. What? Birds?"

Eli and Matthew walked side by side through the corridors towards the gate room.

"So what's the difference in consumption from the normal gate to the mini one?" asked Matthew.

"More than 11 million times less. We'll be using a little more than 6 Peta Watts to keep it up. It's still a lot for a stargate of its size, but at least it won't strain the core of the planet, as we'll need to convert less than 100 grams of Naquadria per second to keep it up instead of the more than 700 tonnes with the other one, and it opens the possibility of using even ship-grade Naquada reactors to power it if we don't want to depend on this system. Two of the reactors used by the Daedalus class should be more than enough." answered Eli.

"11 million times less." said Matthew with a frown. "How big is it?"

"The one we are using are the same as those used on the Communication Columbus. They are 1 millimeter in diameter. We wanted to go for something even smaller to reduce power consumption, but even with replication beams, the magnetic energy conduits required to channel that amount of energy become difficult to create on such small scales. We could go nano scale, but it would require Tier 3 or above technology to do it, and that has not been authorized, as we have to deploy another mini gate to the Ancient ship." answered Eli.

"Eli! About time. Get to your station, and warn me on power fluctuations. I'll start the dialing sequence." said Rush in a business tone.

Eli shrugged to Matthew, and went to the power management station. "Ready." he said.

Rush initiated the dialing sequence, and before the stargate blossomed into life the first vibrations started being felt. The amount of Naquadria to neutrino conversion in the core was so great that the massive energy release literally vibrated the planet in its entirety. A few seconds later the characteristic unstable vortex was seen receding into the water like pool of a stargate connection.

"Now! Move it. We just have three minutes." barked Rush to a scientist controlling a special MALP that had the mini stargate 'shoe box' latched on top of it.

While the MALP started heading towards the stargate, Matthew asked Eli in a very low voice. "Why only three minutes?"

Eli was balancing the planetary wide neutrino-capture-subatomic-particle-emitter devices to reduce the stress on one face of the core, and increase the conversion on another, but as focused as he was he still answered. "A constant shaking can literally liquify the ground, and while we are safely in a rocky area, other parts of the planet could be affected, so we want to avoid damage to the ecosystem."

"Liquify? How is that possible?" asked Matthew again.

"Don't know. I'm not a Geologist, but on Earth there have been cases that when a strong earthquake lasts for more than 3 minutes, the ground starts taking the properties of a liquid, and that's when major land displacement happens. But I really don't know, you'll have to ask Andrea."

"Who?"

"Doctor Palmer," Eli saw Matthew's face and added. "Andrea Palmer, the geologist."

"Ah! Yeah. OK. But it doesn't matter, it was just passing curiosity, nothing more."

The MALP passed through the gate, and a few seconds later they started receiving telemetry from it. They saw the images of the ancient ship's gate room. There were several other MALPs reconnoitering the ship, and were not in sight. The mini gate MALP moved away from the normal gate to a safe distance, and sent a green signal back.

Not even two minutes had passed, and the gate was disconnected. Rush moved to the mini stargate console and said. "OK. I'm starting the dialing sequence."

The mini gate was inside a box equipped with a myriad of different systems including transporter emitters, and it looked from the outside like a CPU casing. Obviously one could not see if it was active, but still it was working. The two mini stargates were configured to work exclusively between each other.

They started receiving telemetry again from every MALP on the ship, and they focused on the image being received from the mini stargate MALP. The video feed showed the corridor in front of the unmanned vehicle.

"Eli. How's the power feed?" asked Rush.

It was obvious that the stress on the planet was nonexistent as there were no vibrations registering on the seismograph, but still Eli gave the scientific answer. "Holding at 5.93 Peta Watts. And there are no instabilities in the core. I think its working perfectly."

"OK. Prepare for transport test." said Rush putting a fully solved Rubik cube in front of the 'shoe box' emitter node. He moved towards a station manned by a transporter expert, and added. "OK. Lets do it."

The Rubik cube disappeared in a blue flash, and a couple seconds later reappeared in the video feed from the stargate MALP. The cube rested in the middle of the corridor completely unaware of having traveled billions of light years, more than two thirds of the way to the observable universe border.

Everybody cheered and clapped for success. But Rush knew it was just half of the problem solved. At 6 Peta Watts, it was probable that there wouldn't be a problem to dial back, but they just didn't know if the Ancient ship had the energy required to do so, so their solution included beaming things and people back and forth trough the same outgoing wormhole. Normal matter could only travel one way, but it was very well known that radio emissions could be bidirectional, and transporter beams comprised of subatomic particles were also not affected. The problem was that the Tier system didn't allow outside deployment of transporter or replication systems, as it was a very sensitive technology. Even the system deployed on Icarus was protected by at least one Achilles class vessel in orbit. So the thing was getting the transporter system installed in Icarus base to function on the Ancient ship. Transporting the matter and reassembling it on the other side was made with special Tier 1 sensors that made an accurate three dimensional map of the transporter area, and these coordinates were used by the transporter system on Icarus to be able to disassemble anything back for transport through the gate.

"OK. Lets see if we can bring it back" said Rush.

The transporter beam operator activated the system and the cube disappeared in another blue flash from the Ancient ship, and reappeared in Icarus stargate room as if nothing had happened. Rush picked up the solved Rubik cube, examined it before rising it to head level and addressing the other scientists. "Well. It seems we solved the problem." he said using the cube as an analogy. Every one laughed and started to celebrate.

Rush disconnected the connection and asked the transporter beam operator to run an analysis of the cube to verify if it was complete to what the operator answered looking at Rush in slight confusion. "I'm sorry Doctor, but the system failsafe would never have allowed re-materialization if the object was not fully reintegrated to the pre-de-materialitazion scan. I can guarantee you that the cube is exactly as it left."

Rush blushed a little, and said with a shrug. "I'm sorry, I'm not familiarized with the system. It seems I was too eager to ask."

"No problem, Doctor."

Three days passed, and the automated exploration of the Ancient ship was expanded with the added stargate connection time, as it could now be maintained at its maximum. But the more than one year of sporadic exploration using the normal gate had also allowed for good progress, and the ship had been deemed secure enough to initiate a low scale human exploration.

The team had been briefed and were preparing at the stargate room for transport to the Ancient ship. The first wave of exploration consisted of just eight people, four military officers and four scientists.

The military was led by Sub Lieutenant Matthew Scott. Ensigns Vanessa James, Ronald Greer, and Hunter Riley made the rest. The last two had been NCOs previously, but they had been commissioned through the use of the Asgard mind inter-phase as every military in the Federation was now conformed of professionals. They had been given the choice to join, and they did and were given the rank of Ensigns.

The four scientists had worked thoroughly during the past year under the leadership of Doctor Nicholas Rush. Doctors Lisa Park, Dale Volker, Jeremy Franklyn, and Engineer Adam Brody were tasked with verifying fundamental systems in the Ancient starship to determine the repair requirements to safely populate the vessel.

The mini gate locked, and after verifying with the deployed MALPs that the connection was secured, Sub Lieutenant Matthew Scott was beamed away, and appeared in a flash of blue light in the corridor in front of the Gate MALP. He instinctively went in a search pattern with his rifle, and after sensing that every thing was OK, the rest of the military followed. It took at least five minutes for them to move through the adjacent corridors near the gate room to verify that everything was clear, even if the MALPs had already done so, they still did it. After that the scientists followed, and one after the other started to receive the supplies required for the operation, including: Communication stones for emergency situations, rations, clothes, and every type of equipment that could be considered useful for such deployments.

Doctor Rush, who was shunned away from going into the Ancient ship in the first wave in order to better coordinate the repair of the Ancient vessel, made the last communication with the away team before the connection was cut. "Brody, the priority at this moment is to seal any area of the ship that is damaged in order to avoid leaking, and to analyze the life support system in order to get it fully operational. We'll get in contact again in twenty four hours, but we'll keep a constant guard in the communication stones for any emergencies. Once that's ready, we'll start sending the repair teams to get the ship to its prime."

"Understood, Doctor Rush. See you tomorrow." replied Adam.

"Good luck." finished Rush, and with that cut the connection, and left eight humans billions of light years away from Milky Way, and on the start of a new adventure.

* * *

**Author's notes: (These notes are just for the McKays. O'Neills move on.)**

- For the Destiny arc, I'll be using the following data for the Destiny's FTL drive:

Intergalactic speed of: 3,000 Light years per hour to justify the time it took to get from one galaxy to another (I'm considering 1,000,000 light years in 14 days just to get a number)

Galactic speed of: Variable depending on gravitic fields near the ship as I'm considering the drive susceptible to gravitic fields , but 6 Light years per hour average to justify for the time we saw destiny on the series inside a galaxy, and to not exceed the galactic drives of the Auroras, or only the smaller space used by the hyperdrives would have justify using them instead of the FTL drive.

I'll be considering Destiny at more less 37 billion light years away. 10 billion light years from the observable universe border. At that distance an Achilles could reach the Destiny in 257 days.

At this speeds, Destiny could be more than 100 times farther away than the supposed 93 billion light year diameter of the observable universe, but I'm considering it a 37 billion from its center to not mess up with things science hasn't got a good understanding. So to justify the ship being 37 billion instead of more than 10,000 billion light years away, I'm making the supposition that the ship moved in zig zag between galaxies, and made regular stops to refuel inside suns, explore planets via stargate, etc, etc, etc,.

If you want to see the information considered to reach this decision, please check the story's forum under: Distance to Destiny.

Especial thanks for Durabys, Midnighter 13, and kenise for helping me on this one.

- Power requirements to dial Destiny: I'm using a ZPM total power capacity of 50.16 Yotta Joules, and a total power requirement to dial destiny of 67.83 Zeta Watts, or the equivalent of 753 tonnes of naquadria per second in the planet core being converted to neutrinos, Or 0.135 ZPMs per second. How I got this is a very long explanation. But the short version is: I took the average energy on a lightning strike. I counted the lightning strikes that struck Atlantis when the big wave was coming. I multiplied that number by the average energy per lightining, and then divide this by the time we saw the shields up. That gave me the energy required to keep the shields up, I then multiplied that by the years the three ZPM kept the shields up under water, and divided that by three (the amount of zpms used) and that gave me the power of a ZPM.

From this I calculated many things, from the power of Wraith weapons (number of bolts hitting atlantis per seconds, and McKay saying that the half powerd ZPM would last two weeks tops, etc) to the energy required to dial Destiny. I calculated the energy to dial from Earth to Pegasus (which is too long to explain here) at around 5.5 exa watts per second or .00000011 percent of a ZPM per second. So if I make a linear growth in energy requirements, we have that if we consume 5.5 exa watts to travel 3,000,000 light years to Pegasus, then to travel 37,000,000,000 we need 67.83 Zeta Watts to dial Destiny or .135 percent of a ZPM per second. That means that the ZPM will only last for a little more than 12 minutes. That same power requirements will compare to 42,393 Achilles class vessels, so it justifies using the core of a planet.

- Especial thanks for Gryffinrider for the help in making this story readable.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's notes:**

-Midnighter 13 pointed out a huge mistake. Regretfully, and I don't know how this happened :) I have been using green for the Jaffa bolts. I don't know if I made this mistake all along the story, but I know it to be true for at least the last few chapters. I'm correcting the mistake in this one, but the others will remain the same, so please just look it over.

-Special thanks for my betas: GriffynRider and Durabys for making this story possible.

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Ahknet – Free Jaffa Nation Colony**

**Ha'tak II – Bridge**

**July 26, 2011**

Rak'nor was standing in front of the observation window of the FJN Flagship's bridge. The Planet below was one of thousands of planets in Milky Way terraformed by the Ancients to their own specifications. Two of the primary concerns for them in considering a planet for terraforming had been the mass required for a 1 gravity environment, and for the planet being in the temperate area of the star. These were the main reasons for every planet possessing a stargate to have an Earth like appearance and similar flora and fauna. While the planets were unique in their composition, their surface biodiversity was similar due to the Ancients bringing those species in.

Rak'nor was oblivious to this reality, but Ahknet was no exception. It was a beautiful blue planet. Its oceans were vast, and while they were smaller in surface area than those of Earth, they covered a greater percentage of Ahknet's surface, because the planet while being denser than the human home world, it was also far smaller. The Ancients might have towed more ice from the system's Kupier belt than was necessary, but it made the planet a sapphire in the sky.

In orbit, the sun's rays reflected from the planet shimmered on the surface of several hundred ships. Tel'taks were coming and going from the surface supplementing the ring transporters in bringing supplies to the fleet.

The Fleet gathered in orbit consisted of 91 Ha'tak II with 72 more en route, 172 Ha'taks, and 702 Al'kesh. The last two types of ships represented every unit of their type available in the FJN. The Jaffa were reinforcing their planets with a new Ha'tak III every day, and had sent every ship of the older designs to the front. The other 5 Ha'tak III being delivered every day by the Terran Federation were also being sent to the front lines, and after several months of traveling the first was about to arrive.

Rak'nor was a little impatient. He was like a child expecting a new toy, but it wasn't only the fact that a newer and more powerful variant of the Ha'tak was about to become available in the fight against the Aschen, but most importantly that from then on, a constant flow of 5 ships per day was going to arrive at Ahknet to reinforce the fleet. It had been a stressful few months of waiting in anguish for reinforcements or an Aschen invasion fleet, but the wait was now over. The ships arriving were still not enough to turn the tide of an attack, but the constant flow was enough to turn the tide of anxiety.

He kept watching the window and not the sensor screen. "How much more, Hai'rak?"

"A few seconds more, Fleet Master. The ship is about to make the transition." answered Hai'rak.

As prophesied, a blue vortex mimicking the blue of Ahknet opened a few dozen kilometers away from the fleet, and from it emerged ...

"A beauty." said Rak'nor half smiling while Hai'rak walked to his side to admire the view.

"It looks like a ..." Hai'rak turned to see Rak'nor shrugging. "Ha'tak, Fleet Master."

Rak'nor chuckled. "It's a Ha'tak, Hai'rak. But you are not seeing the details." he extended his arm pointing to one of the arms of the new arrival. "There. See? One cannon instead of the two carried by the Ha'taks and Ha'taks II. Those bigger weapons pack a formidable punch, and while we are reducing the number of main guns, our overall firepower is four times greater than before." He made a circle with its finger covering the entire vessel. "It also has 192 point defense staff cannons, the same as this ship, but with a reactor strength three times stronger than the previous models, making its shield recharge rates and overall shield strength at maximum power three times stronger than this vessel. That alone makes it faster and more survivable."

"May I speak freely, Fleet Master?" asked Hai'rak.

"Go ahead."

"Do you believe it'll be enough to stop the Aschen? Their numbers are growing, and ours are diminishing with each battle. Do you think that ship will really make a difference?" asked Hai'rak in doubt.

"No. That ship while more powerful than the ones before will not make a difference, but the numbers we are bringing will. Our shipyards are at full swing, and the first new builds have already crossed the distance to the front. We'll be receiving five new ships every day Hai'rak, and in a few months we'll have the strength to bring the fight to the Aschen." answered Rak'nor.

"Five ships per day? I didn't know we were able to produce that amount of vessels. I though we were only producing almost 30 per year." said Hai'rak enthusiastically. "How is that possible, Fleet Master."

Rak'nor sighed. He couldn't tell Hai'rak about Terran Federation support, especially him, as he had little affection for the Tau'ri. He couldn't lie as that conflicted with his code of honor, but the council had ordered that to be kept a secret, so he said. "It's a massive effort we are making, Hai'rak. We have even been forced to leave some planets to concentrate our populations where they are most needed, but what is really important, is that we have them. We just have to make sure that we don't lose those ships needlessly. We have to make every one count." He didn't lie, as they were leaving some planets as payment for the Federation, and they were concentrating those people where they were needed most, especially on industrial sites. Either case, it seemed to be enough answer for Hai'rak.

"I see... If I have to speak the truth, I have to say that I was losing hope." He looked down. "I should have never doubted, Fleet Master. I should have known that our people would prevail, that we'd overcome any obstacle..."

"Stay focus, Hai'rak." interrupted Rak'nor. He didn't want him to consider the Jaffa omnipotent, and less because their current strength was due to the Tau'ri. "You have seen us lose battles. Don't go believing we are unbeatable just because we are Jaffa. We are warriors, and we will fight, but that doesn't mean we have to blind ourselves in a rightful rage, and charge our enemies believing they can't hurt us, because that kind of thinking will only lose us the War. We can die the same way the Aschen can. You must be humble, and use your brains and heart to overcome problems, and not your emotions. This war will be won not only with superior forces, but also with superior thinking, and the Aschen have proven to have both. So please, don't lose hope, but don't get running sky high, because we are in for an extremely difficult war."

Hai'rak bowed his head in shame. "I'm sorry, Fleet Master."

"Don't be. I was the same as you at your age." he sighed. "I learned the hard way, and lost several good friends." he turned to see Hai'rak. "I'd like you to avoid that if possible, but I know you need to have your own experiences, just leave your mind open, and make your own decisions. Don't let tradition or old teachings destroy your individuality. One day if you are able to do so, you'll surely get your own command."

"Thanks, Fleet Master."

Rak'nor bowed a little. "Now. Prepare to transfer command, and get this ship ready for a new crew."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

After a few minutes, the two ships moved closer to each other, bottom to bottom, and a transporter ring connection was made. It didn't take much time for Rak'nor to transfer his command to the new mothership. He had come to like the Ha'tak II, but the III was a far better combat platform.

**Ahknet – Free Jaffa Nation Colony**

**Ha'tak III – Bridge**

**November 2, 2011**

It had been a little more than three months since the first Ha'tak III arrived at the front, and now the orbit of Ahknet looked completely different: 540 Ha'tak III, 163 Ha'tak II, 172 Ha'tak, and 702 Al'kesh. The ships were in defensive formation in geostationary orbit above the Capitol where the Stargate was located. Ring transporter connections were a constant to the ships in orbit, and Tel'taks still supplemented them. There were also a lot of Tel'taks working as ELINT vessels on every possible avenue of approach to Tyl'mah, where the Aschen were already making a major gathering of ships and resources. Many of their scout ships were already patrolling hyperspace listening to subspace communications to try and detect the Jaffa colonies, where others were just simply jumping on different systems to make the reconnaissance the old fashioned way.

None of the Jaffa colonies close to Tyl'mah had been detected yet, but several of them were not far from where the main Aschen scouts were operating, and this was the reason the Jaffa accelerated the time table of the attack.

"Is the fleet ready?" asked Rak'nor.

"Just a couple of Tel'taks need to unload their supplies, and we'll be ready." answered Hai'rak. "No more than 30 minutes, Fleet Master."

"Good. Have all ships report status."

"Yes, Fleet Master." replied Hai'rak while working on his console.

A few minutes later the data started filtering in. "All Ha'tak III report fully operational. There are some anti-fighter turrets on the Ha'tak II that are still undergoing maintenance, but the report confirms the process will be finished before we arrive at Tyl'mah. The Ha'taks are another thing though." said Hai'rak sighing. "Some have still to repair damage from our attack on Nakgora. The vibrations from weapon impacts really messed with their internals. They still have all sorts of problems."

"That was to be expected, they are old ships. That's the reason we sent them here instead of upgrading them to Ha'tak II. But I would have hoped their crews would have sorted out the major problems by now. Its been months."

"They have, Fleet Master. All ships report reactors, hyper-drives, and shield systems operating to specifications. But a lot of them still have power conduits and weapon turrets to deal with, while others are still performing repairs on secondary computer clusters. Some of their crystals got shattered."

"Hmm. What about logistics?"

"As you know the Ha'tak IIIs arrived with at least several years worth of reactor fuel, and sufficient liquid Naquada for weapons to manage dozens of very long and intense fights. We have distributed some of those resources to the other ships. All motherships are fully capable to handle several months worth of reactor operation at maximum power, and several days of constant weapons fire. Food supplies had been brought through the gate, and we are still handling our needs with a single one, but if the fleet keeps increasing in size, we'll need to use a close by Stargate to supplement this one and bring the resources from that other colony via Tel'taks, or split the fleet and assign other vessels to another planet."

"Probably have to. But we still have a major fight ahead of us. Lets hope we still have a fleet when it's over."

The minutes passed, and the last Tel`tak resupply mission was finished. The ships started moving away from their defensive positions and out of orbit, and several at a time started entering hyperspace. It took some time for the entire Jaffa fleet to make the transition, but as soon as they did, they started to slowly reform their formations.

The hundreds of vessels started a long parabolic approach to Tyl'mah to avoid giving away Ahknet's position from a linear approach, and twelve days later they were reaching the outskirts of the system.

**Hyperspace near Tyl'mah – Former FJN Colony, currently Aschen controlled space**

**Ha'tak III – Bridge**

**November 14, 2011**

"Is that number confirmed?" asked Rak'nor.

"Yes, Fleet Master. Three Aschen battle groups in triangle defensive formation in low orbit. All drones deployed. They know we are coming." answered Hai'rak.

"On main screen."

Hai'rak immediately transferred his console visuals to the main screen. The Aschen battle groups were deployed in their standard funnel like formation, with each battle group the vertex of a triangle. Drones were deployed everywhere: In low orbit protecting the Aschen capital ships as well as up to high orbit and beyond.

"Every approach to their fleet is covered." said Rak'nor talking in a low voice to himself. He turned to Hai'rak. "Numbers?"

"3 of their motherships, 81 of their escorts and 27 of their scouts." answered Hai'rak matter of factly.

"Drones?"

Hai'rak worked on his console a little longer this time, and answered. "102,360" he paused. "A lot."

"As always." replied Rak'nor. "But we have more ships this time, which are also more powerful."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

"But still not enough to make a direct assault without sustaining major losses. This is going to be a long battle. I'm already getting tired." joked Rak'nor.

"Are we going to make them run out of fuel again, Fleet Master?"

"No. It won't work this time. They have their motherships to refuel. They can keep the pressure with some drones while others refuel, and then cycle them. We are going to have to destroy them." Rak'nor sighed. "Prepare for orders."

A few seconds passed, and Hai'rak replied. "Ready, Fleet Master."

"The fleet will make the transition as a whole. Once that's done, all units are to form in groups of four, and proceed in different vectors. We'll be performing attacks in waves to try and reduce drone numbers. No risks. We conserve the fleet. Attack and retreat, attack and retreat. Once they pull their drones back to refuel, we'll see if we have the numbers to seize the situation and break their fleet. Proceed."

Hai'rak proceeded to send the orders to all vessels, and received the proper acknowledges. "Fleet ready, Fleet Master."

"Good, make the transition."

Hai'rak nodded and a few seconds later the Fleet made the transition to normal space as a whole. 875 vortexes formed and deposited a similar number of Ha'taks into normal space. They soon started launching the 702 Al'kesh from their hangars, and started to slowly deploy in groupings of four. The Fleet had jumped several hundred thousand kilometers from the border of the drone formation, so they were at a relatively safe distance from the slow moving automated weapons.

Soon, groups of Ha'taks started moving towards the Aschen drone formations. One after the other, followed closely by similarly numbered groups of Al'kesh, they made their approach to fire their point defense weapons. All over the battle field and working independently, each group made attack runs on the constantly redeploying drones. The Aschen tried to force some groups inside their funnels so that the units deployed at the borders of the funnel could drop on the Jaffa blocking their escape, while destroying them in the process, but the Jaffa kept their ships firing against the Aschen drones without entering their funnels.

This process was repeated for a long time. Several hundred drones had been destroyed with no loss for the Jaffa, but the Aschen had no intention in making the battle simple, or in letting the Jaffa cripple their drone force without inflicting considerable damage to the opposing force.

**Aschen Command Space Vessel ...**

Admiral Rada Keraz was standing in the central platform of the bridge. The Aschen bridge configuration was considerably different than that of humans and Jaffa, but that of the Command Space Vessel was also extremely different than Aschen Escort and Scout Vessels. In the center, there was an oblong platform with hand rails at its borders, which began at the main entrance to the bridge. All around the platform there were dozens of stations of every type. It was a truly dedicated command and control environment. The amount of information being processed inside was enormous, and if the stations were many, the computers backing them were even more.

Above the stations and growing all the way to the roof were huge screens providing all the information needed for the commanding officer. From unit status to enemy fleet deployment; Tactical analysis with complex algorithms providing recommended course of action; to every sort of command and control functions. The system was remarkable, and only inferior in complexity to the systems included in the human Achilles class vessels, but done with far inferior technology.

Admiral Rada Keraz, who a few months ago was only a Scout Captain, had been given the rank of Admiral due to his performance in his battle against the FJN. It was not common to jump through Escort Captain, Command Captain, and into Admiral, but the Aschen were a practical people, and if they saw an opportunity they took it. Rada Keraz had proven capable of inflicting the Jaffa a lot of damage when his forces consisted of only drones and a few scouts, so they quickly pressed him to command in replacement of Admiral Nerrob Goyzem.

He was watching the combat develop, when one of the station operatives began speaking at the same time his screen showed 20 percent fuel capacity. "Admiral, Our drones have reached twenty percent capacity. Should I order them back?"

Admiral Keraz turned to see the operative with a calmed face. "Deploy the second group forward, and bring the first one in to resupply."

The operative quickly started to work on his console, while the Admiral turned to his second in command and spoke with the common emotional neutrality characteristic of the Aschen. "Command Captain. Prepare the fleet for resupply operation, and ready our new weapons for testing."

"As you command, Admiral." said the command captain bowing slightly.

The fleet reconfigured the launch tubes for retrieval, and while a third of the drones remained near their motherships, another third move forwards while the last third started to move back to resupply.

**FJN Flagship …**

"They are pulling back some drones while moving others forward." stated Hai'rak.

"Wait until they retrieve them. Once that's done order the fleet to form into a cone formation. Ha'tak IIIs to the front as we practiced." ordered Rak'nor.

"Yes, Fleet Master."

Minutes passed, and the last drone was retrieved.

"Now!" ordered Rak'nor while Hai'rak nodded getting to work immediately.

The Jaffa Fleet pulled back a little to avoid being intercepted while reforming. Hundreds of Ha'tak IIIs moved to form the tip of the cone, while hundreds more formed inside it at the front in smaller cone tips as reserves to plug any breaches to the formation. Ha'tak IIs continued the main cone backwards after the IIIs, followed by the standards and the Al'keshes, leaving the base of the cone open as their speed made it impossible for the Aschen to try an attack at their rear. They had practiced this formation for use against heavily drone defended positions, as they were able to concentrate all fire forward as in a wall formation, but also from flank attacks while keeping the momentum forward and the fleet stabbing at the heart of the enemy formation.

The Jaffa fleet made their approach on a vector that would not make them hit the planet. They were using their acceleration to increase their speed while using the planet to increase it even further, but leaving the option open for a slingshot maneuver to allow for a hasty retreat in case they were unable to handle the Aschen.

The Aschen forces redeployed and formed a huge funnel of drones that ended in a massed gathering of even more drones just in front of their fleet. But the Jaffa did not relent, they kept pressing forward and soon entered weapons range of the main cannons. Thousands of huge yellow bolts made their way from the newer Ha'taks and into the Aschen drone formations. The distance made very few shots count, but they still did hit them. The range closed to where the Jaffa were at the point of no return. The borders of the Aschen drone funnel collapsed towards the FJN Fleet. They were both now committed.

**Aschen Command Space Vessel ...**

Admiral Rada Keraz was watching on one of the main screens the Jaffa Fleet making their approach. At that moment the distance to the first drones was close enough for the FJN ships to open fire with their point defense cannons that heavily outnumbered his drones even in full deployment. Space was filled by more than a hundred thousand plasma pulses every second. The Aschen drones sensors tracked the relatively slow moving bolts, and were able to maneuver to avoid being hit. But as the distance shrank, the losses started to mount.

"Good move, Jaffa. Good move. You attacked faster than I anticipated." said the Admiral to himself. "But you are unaware of the hidden pieces in this battle field." the Admiral then turned to the Command Captain. "Wait until they are committed with our main drone force, so that they can't escape through one side of the funnel, and have all ships enter hyperspace."

The Command Captain looked at the Admiral intently without revealing any emotion. "Are we retreating, Admiral?"

"No. We'll return just where the Jaffa Fleet used to be. They did move before we were ready, I'll give them that. But it may actually prove better. We may be able to attack them twice. We'll just give time for our drones to refuel, and we'll attack again. They have come with a lot more vessels that I suspected they had, but I still don't think they'll be able to defeat even the drones we have deployed in front of their attack." answered Keraz. But, while the Aschen had a surprise for the Jaffa, they were also unaware that they were facing upgraded ships.

The Jaffa Fleet kept their relentless approach towards the Aschen Fleet, and every single drone was now accelerating towards them from all sides. The distance was shrinking, the Jaffa point defense fire only intensified, but soon the first drone was able to get through that rain of plasma pulses and into the shields of the forward deployed Ha'tak. The first fusion detonation was seen, soon followed by another, and another, and after more than a hundred impacts the first Ha'tak III was lost in battle. The ship disintegrated after its heavily reinforced shield collapsed, and while the molten remains of the ship kept advancing through sheer momentum towards the Aschen, the constant acceleration of the Fleet soon started leaving the glowing pieces behind.

The first Ha'tak destroyed was followed shortly by several others, but the amount of drones being obliterated by the massive point defense fire was at least four hundred per Ha'tak lost, and that would drain the drone strength before they would be able to heavily damage the Jaffa Fleet. Also, the drones coming from the sides would in their great majority miss the opportunity of engaging the Ha'taks as the FJN forces were moving very fast away from them, but at least some were able to reach the less effective ships at the base of the Jaffa cone formation, and there the losses were heavier.

Still the Jaffa kept moving forward, and soon reached the core of the drone formation. The tip of the cone looked like a comet of yellow and orange fire. The golden pulses of the point defense weapons were stopped shortly after leaving by the drones being destroyed in orange blasts, and that made the mentioned effect. But the comet was also alight from the white blasts of fusion detonations. It was a furnace, and while the Jaffa were losing many ships, it was the Aschen being baked.

"They are about to break through, Admiral." reported an officer from a station.

Admiral Keraz nodded, and turned to the Command Captain. "Make the jump, and get us back 70,000 kilometers on the other side of our drones. Have the surviving ones to pull back to cover us. Start launching the refueled drones as soon as they are ready. But we'll keep the surprise until the last moment."

"Yes, Admiral."

The Aschen Fleet retreated momentarily into hyperspace before returning a few seconds later in the location where the Jaffa Fleet had formed their cone formation. The Aschen battle groups repositioned themselves in a similar way as they had been in orbit, and were now facing a Jaffa fleet heading the opposite way.

The refueled drones started launching, while the ones that had just engaged the Jaffa were heading back to provide additional cover.

Admiral Keraz walked a few steps to positioned himself closer to the screens on the right side of the bridge. The one he was currently looking was displaying Fleet numbers from both sides. He was surprised to see that he had used more than 47,000 drones to destroy just 125 of the Jaffa main capital ships and 179 of their smaller vessels. He had a little more than 55,000 remaining, plus his more than 21,000 surprises, while the Jaffa still had 750 of their main capital ships, and 523 of the smaller.

He knew at that moment that something was wrong.

"Operator." he said to the crew man manning that station. "How many drones were necessary to destroy one of their main vessels?"

The operator got to work, and immediately provided an answer. "The reports are conflicting, Admiral. Some units required more than a hundred drones to destroy, while others required a little more than thirty."

"They are using different variants, and at least a new model we haven't encountered before." stated the Admiral.

"I believe that is the case, Admiral. Many of their units have been equipped with a greater number of point defense weapons, and we've also detected bigger plasma bolts being fired by weapons that we haven't encountered before."

"I want a battle run with what we have remaining."

The operator nodded, and the massive computing power of the Command Space Vessel got to work, and provided an answer almost immediately. On the main screen appeared a 31 percent victory probability. Slowly as new battle runs were performed that number started to drop, and after a few minutes, just when the Jaffa were starting to turn around an reposition themselves for a second attack, the number stopped at 23 percent.

"Shall I provide the battle scenarios that proved victorious if the enemy uses the same battle formation, Admiral?" asked the operator.

"No." answered the Admiral with complete confidence. "I know enough to make a decision." He turned around and said. "Command Captain."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Reduce the diameter of our drone funnels by 20 percent."

"Admiral?"

"That will allow our funnel borders to reach the aft area of the Jaffa formation if they employ the same conical formation."

"Yes, Admiral."

"Calculate the distance required to start launching our upgraded drones so that we are able to launch every single one while giving enough time for our ships to escape to hyperspace."

"Yes, Admiral."

"When the Jaffa fleet enters our drone funnel have one SSV break formation to provide guidance for our drones when we jump out."

The Command Captain nodded.

**FJN Flagship …**

"The Fleet has completed the turn, Fleet Master. We are again facing the Aschen. Your command?" asked Hai'rak.

"They have refueled their fighters, but they are far weaker than before. We'll force them to refuel again. When they do that, their numbers will be even lower. Now we'll break them. Start sending units forward."

"In groups, Fleet Master?"

"Yes, the same as before. Again, no risks. We conserve the fleet. Attack and retreat, attack and retreat."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

The orders were sent, and Jaffa vessels started moving forward to repeat the same strategy. While that was happening, Hai'rak addressed Rak'nor.

"Fleet Master?"

"Yes, Hai'rak. What is it?"

"We attacked a greater number of drones head on before. Why aren't we attacking the same way again? Why do we need to force their drones to refuel? Our Fleet certainly has the firepower to defeat them."

"The Aschen move their drones like a shoal of fish, Hai'rak. We attack on one side of their formation, and that area retreats while the other moves forward to try and block our retreat. We were able to destroy a few of their drones from lucky long range fire, but the cost in liquid Naquada for our weapons is too much to keep up, but still cheaper than losing ships. This strategy at least forced them to move and consume resources. They retreated a third of their drones to refuel. I ordered the attack with the hope of breaking a weakened drone formation to destroy their fleet, but they retreated and it cost us a lot of Ha'taks without inflicting any losses to their capital ships. I'm not going to try and break that formation when that's probably what they want, and after inflicting losses to our forces, they'll probably retreat again. We'll force them to refuel their drones, and we'll attack a weakened drone formation, which will reduce our casualties in case they want to retreat again. But I can tell you, If they retreat, it will be the last time as they won't have sufficient drones to mount a serious opposition."

"Isn't there a way to intercept them before they escape?"

"We could have some ships make a combat jump, but they are surely to be intercepted by the drones deployed closer to their vessels. I wish I had some Naquada bomb equipped automated Tel'taks."

"Why?" Hai'rak straighten up. "Why, Fleet Master?"

"Because we could detonate them in hyperspace at the same time and location the Aschen make their retreat."

"But that's not the way of a warrior. It will dishonor us."

"Why?" asked Rak'nor calmly.

"Because that's like stabbing someone from behind."

"Don't tell me you have never shot a retreating enemy on the back?"

"Yes, Fleet Master, but after we engaged and defeated them in battle. Only when we have proven ourselves superior."

"And what would they be doing if we detonated a Tel'tak in hyperspace." asked Rak'nor.

"I..., I see Fleet Master." answered Hai'rak with a bow.

"It's good you understand, Hai'rak, but still, I would never hesitate to use that strategy even if they were not retreating. My concern is to the Free Jaffa Nation, and I will do anything necessary to defeat the Aschen fleet."

"But..."

"No buts, Hai'rak. We don't play with the lives of our people, of our families. We'll do everything that is necessary to protect them. Every place is a valid battlefield, including hyperspace. Every tactic is a valid weapon, including sneak attacks. I know you don't like the Tau'ri. But they had employed these tactics and have defeated foes that woefully outmatched them. They know the stakes, as we now must do. Dishonor would befall us if we attacked their civilians as the Aschen had done to us, but with their military, everything is fair. Learn that, and when you get a command, consider every single option to defeat an opponent that is bent in defeating you. Do that for the sakes of our people."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

**Aschen Command Space Vessel ...**

It was clear from the deployment they were making that the Jaffa were not going to make a direct attack.

The Command Captain approached the Admiral. "It would seem they are trying the same tactic."

"Yes, but we know what follows. Start shuffling drones from the inner formations while bringing those from the outer ones to refuel. One by one, second by second. We'll see what the Jaffa will do if we don't pull out a huge chunk of our forces." replied Keraz.

"As you command, Admiral." acknowledged the Command Captain while moving towards the corresponding station.

During the following minutes, the Aschen drones refueled constantly without reducing the strength of those deployed in containing the Jaffa forces. They suffered some losses to the extremely intense long range firing from the Jaffa units, but from a resource perspective, the Jaffa were consuming far more than the cost of a few drones. The Aschen were not refueling their drones in mass, and they could sustain this type of combat for hours or even a few days.

**FJN Flagship …**

"So, they are not falling for it a second time." murmured Rak'nor.

"I'm sorry, Fleet Master. I couldn't hear you." replied Hai'rak.

"Nothing, Hai'rak. I was just thinking loud. It seems they are not going to be refueling their drones as we wished."

"Yes, Fleet Master. It appears so. Are we going to continue as we are?"

"Let me think a little... They are reinforcing their funnel units by those from the ship defense block to make up for those drones being refueled, but there is not much of a difference for us to exploit, and their ships are strong enough to bring ours down if we tried a combat jump with a few units, even if their drones don't destabilized our incoming vortex if we tried it. No. I'm afraid that if we want this system, we'll have to do exactly what they want us to do. We'll have to make another direct attack."

"Their forces are weaker than before, and if we inflict the same amount of losses, they won't have too many drones left to pose a threat as you said before." added Hai'rak.

"Yes, but it will be us suffering losses and not them."

"We have destroyed thousands of drones, Fleet Master."

"They are weapons, Hai'rak. We need to destroy their ships if we want to cripple their fighting capabilities. If we destroy drones, we only destroy their ships main fighting ability, but they can easily retreat to rearm."

"I understand, Fleet Master." replied Hai'rak with a bow.

"Signal the fleet. Reform into conical formation, and prepare for attack."

The Ha'taks that were not committed started to immediately reform the tip of the cone. The Jaffa Flagship stood at the center of several layers of the cone tip. Ships continue to increase the size of the cone backwards as they return from their skirmishes with the Aschen drones, and soon the full fleet cone was not only fully reformed but gaining speed towards the Aschen forces.

The hundreds of Ha'taks racing towards their targets was an impressive sight. But the true splendor of it started when the main guns sputtered their massive plasma pulses. One after the other were soon made into thousands of bolts being fired every second. The range was high, but in the distance a few flashes indicated the impact of some lucky shots into an Aschen drone.

The ships kept moving forward. The drones did the same, and soon they entered range of the point defense cannons which lighted up space around them with hundreds of thousands of bolts per second. The massive plasma wall struck the Aschen drones with force. The number of shots missed were huge, but the huge number of shots filling space every second made up for the losses. Soon hundreds of Aschen drones were being torn apart, but at that moment the border of the Aschen funnel fell into the Jaffa fleet blocking it from escape, and giving them a single option: To fight it through.

**Aschen Command Space Vessel ...**

"They are inside the funnel. Launch the upgraded drones. Maximum speed. Disengage the scout and prepare the fleet for jump." ordered Admiral Keraz.

Every Aschen CSV and ESV started launching a total of more than 21,000 drones. But these were not standard drones. These were not equipped with fusion drives but with gravitic ones, and as soon as they left their launch tubes, it was clear that they were meant for speed. They were more expensive to build, but they were designed to be far more effective in fighting the fast Jaffa Motherships, and every drone factory on Aschen Prime was building this new variant. The ones in Keraz's Fleet were the first ones, brought via transports and loaded into the warships, but Keraz instead of reloading the transports with the older variant, he kept them, and started cycling drones while keeping his launch tubes filled to capacity. When the Jaffa were detected approaching Tyl'mah, he only launched the older variant to keep the rest as a surprise, and what a surprise they were going to be.

From one of the Aschen battle groups, a single Scout Space Vessel detached itself from formation, and headed away at maximum speed. From the three battle groups, hundreds of the newer variant of drones were being launched every second. Every single one headed for the tip of the Jaffa's cone formation.

Inside the funnel, the fireworks were still as massive as at the last engagement. The drones were very close to the tip of the Jaffa cone and the same golden orange light spectacle was being shown.

A few seconds later, the first Ha'taks were lost to the same intense drone approach, but from the Jaffa fleet the first signs of trouble were being discerned by their sensors in the form of thousands of new drones.

**FJN Flagship …**

"Fleet Master!" shouted Hai'rak.

"I see them, Hai'rak."

"No! Its not that. Those drones are approaching far faster than they normally do."

"How so?"

"We are reading them just slightly slower than our Ha'taks. But even if we turn now, we are too close, and our momentum will allow them to reach us with speed to spare, not to mention that we are inside their funnel and engaged at all sides by the other drones."

"Then we are committed. Keep the Fleet forward. This is going to get messy. But we have the firepower and shield strength to go through."

"Yes, Fleet Master." answered an anxious Hai'rak.

From the main window they could both see that the forward Ha'taks were heavily committed. One after the other more and more were destroyed by the incoming standard drones, but just a few seconds later, the first of the new variant started reaching the forward Ha'taks and smashing into their shields. On the sides the situation was similar, as the Aschen had reduced the funnel width and while those drones were barely able to reach them, they still reached them, and many Ha'taks, Ha'tak II and Al'keshes were being destroyed. It was a new furnace, and this time both sides were being baked.

The number of drones dwindled fast, but they were not going away in silence, they were causing tremendous damage to the Jaffa Fleet.

Rak'nor saw that the several layers of Ha'taks at the tip had been thinned down by the huge amount of drones reaching his formation.

At the distance he also saw the distinctive bluish glow of jump vortex taking the Aschen Fleet away, but the drones were still there and approaching, and while there weren't many more left, there were enough to make things a nightmare. The last Ha'tak in front of his ship blew up, and soon a drone smashed into his Ha'tak III shields. The ships rocked by the impact, then things return to normal to be rocked again and again by one drone after the other.

Rak`nor's Ha'tak III was spitting venom at the last approaching drones. The gold plasma pulses wreaked havoc into them, but the speed of the newer variant made targeting a nightmare, and the first signs of trouble appeared.

"Shields at 100 percent, Fleet Master, but capacitors are fully drained." stated Hai'rak.

"Let's hope the energy in our shield matrix and recharge rates are enough." replied Rak'nor worried by the huge number of impacts that were making the ship shake violently.

"Shields at 62 percent. Shall I order ships to cover us, Fleet Master?" asked an anxious Hai'rak.

"We knew the risks, Hai'rak." replied Rak'nor while more drones smashed into the shields.

"39 percent. Fleet Master. You must be saved."

"We'll suffer the same fate as many before us. At least we'll die knowing that we retook Tyl'mah."

The shields were about to collapse when a huge shadow covered the main Pel'tak' window. The silhouette of a Ha'tak was seen making a hard maneuver correction to avoid overshooting, and in a show of perfect coordination positioned itself in front of Rak'nor's Ha'tak. The vessel was firing madly and was alight by the multitude of fusion detonations that were previously headed towards Rak'nor. They were effectively giving their lives to save their Fleet Master. But a few seconds later, and when that ship was about to be destroyed, another two Ha'taks followed its example, and formed besides it adding enough firepower that brought down the last drones approaching on that vector. The Flagship was saved, and Rak'nor and the entire fleet sighed in relief.

"Identify that vessel." ordered Rak'nor.

"It's Fleet Master Varnah's ship, and its escorts, Fleet Master."

"Put him on screen."

"Yes, Fleet Master." answered Hai'rak creating the communications link, and soon Varnah appeared on the main screen.

"Fleet Master." said Varnah. The huge Jaffa was beaming with pride.

Rak'nor smiled. "You were supposed to keep your distance, Varnah. You were supposed to take command of this fleet in case something happened to me."

"I'm sorry Fleet Mas..."

"Rak'nor. We share the same rank Varnah. Call me Rak'nor."

Varnah bowed a little, and continued. "When I saw your last escort being destroyed, and that your ship was not repositioning, I knew you were not going to ask for help. So I decided to give it none the less."

"And this fleet almost lost all command. We could both have been killed." Rak'nor sighed but kept smiling "I'm glad you helped us, Varnah. You already had my respect, but you have earned it again. Now you have my friendship. I just hope I live long enough to repay the debt. It's an honor to fight at your side."

"The honor is mine, Fle... Rak'nor, and there is no debt. I know my duty, and that is to protect our Nation, and the best way I know to do so is to keep you alive. Without you ..."

"Without me, it is you who have to take the lead. We can't have this fleet, and our Nation dependent on one man. That's why we have a Council, and at the moment two Fleet Masters."

"But you have shown to have enough wisdom to fight and defeat the Aschen. I on the other hand ..." added Varnah before being interrupted again.

"It's only hard earn experience what got me here. The same experience you'll soon have, and without you, I would not be here. Remember that. There are still many capable commanders, including Teal'c and Bra'tak who could always command our ships if we fail. So while I appreciate what you did, and you have my gratitude for that, next time you have to guarantee that the fleet survives and not me. This time it was almost over, and your move was wise. But if the battle would have been different, and Aschen ships were still among us, then you must make this Fleet your priority."

"I will, Rak'nor."

"I know you will. Thanks again my friend. Now to the task at hand. I'll move the Fleet to secure orbit. I want you to organize rescue operations. Take any vessel you need to pick up survivors."

"I'll proceed at once." replied Varnah bowing, and then added before cutting communications. "I'm glad to call you my friend, Rak'nor. Varnah out."

The image disappeared at the same time Rak'nor answered in a low voice. "Me too my friend. Me too."

"That was very close, Fleet Master. I though we were not going to make it."

"Yeah. It was close." he sighed at the same time his face relaxed. "Have the Fleet positioned above the stargate, and land troops to secure it. Once you have confirmation it's operational, have all our reinforcements to head here instead of Ahknet."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

The battle was over, and both sides showed their new cards. But while the Aschen had been forced to retreat, they did so without any losses other than their drones. But the Jaffa lost 206 Ha'tak III, 70 Ha'tak II, 93 Ha'tak, and 390 Al'kesh.

But while their losses had been heavy, more than 500 Ha'taks mostly IIIs and 300 Al'keshes settled into orbit to retake, hopefully for good, what had been lost several times.

Tyl'mah, was FJN again.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Eleven**

**Deep Intergalactic Space**

**527,000 light years from Milky Way**

**Alexandria Station - Exploration Command's Local Cluster C&C and Main Archive station**

**Gravitationally linked to Fornax Dwarf Galaxy**

**February 21, 2012**

The silvery white surface looked opaque due to the lack of stellar lightening, but the vessel still looked impressive. The two tall towers at the back of its structure clearly identified it as an Asgard O'Neill class capital ship. The ship was accompanied by another vessel, but this one looked far more streamlined. It was slightly bigger, and was already considered the most powerful ship of every known race. It was an Achilles class Tier 3 capital ship.

The two lonely vessels were mounting guard on a relatively small sphere. It was a boring assignment, but a necessary one. The spherical station was Exploration Command's command and control center for the entire local cluster of galaxies, and it was also the primary archive in which all the information gathered by the exploration satellites was to be concentrated in. It was named after one of the most famous ancient libraries: The Library of Alexandria.

Inside the station, work was also boring. Only Pegasus and Milky Way had Columbus class vessels in operation, and the amount of satellites deployed, while huge was still not enough to challenge Alexandria's systems.

While the Asgard were not part of the Terran Federation, there were many activities in which they cooperated enthusiastically, and this was one of them. The O'Neill class vessel was not their only presence here, as part of Alexandria's crew was Asgard. The trust between both races was second to none, and the combined activity they performed there was an example of how close the two had become.

"You seem to be distracted and forfeiting your duties, Lieutenant Ai Chan. Are you unable to continue performing them?" questioned Nidin, his eyes blinking passively.

The Shanghai born Lieutenant was staring blankly at her hybrid holographic/2D emitter/screen. Her connection to the computer via her mind interface was still active, but her face was clearly telling something different. When she heard Nidin speak, her eyes darted left towards the Asgard, and her attention suddenly became a sponge, absorbing everything in her surroundings, including the emitter/screen and computer information. She slowly turned towards Nidin trying to look casual, but her blushing was giving her away. "Eh. No. I'm OK." she said with a distinctive Chinese accent. "It's only that. Eh... never mind."

The Asgard kept blinking passively and just inclined his head as if absorbing Ai's comment. A couple of seconds later, he went back to his duties without a second thought.

Ai stared at him perplexed. By now she was used to his companion's eccentricities, but she still couldn't understand his reactions. A human would have at least asked: 'What is it?' Her last words: never mind, were normally an intriguing proposition for humans to fall upon and continue the interaction, but for the Asgard it seemed to have that exact meaning, so she added: "I'm just bored. That's all, but everything is OK."

The Asgard turned to her and said. "You humans are easily distracted. You should take some time to regain yourself. Pause your station before more yellow queries are assigned to you, and..."

"Yellow queries?" she interrupted Nidin, her head darting to the emitter/screen. Indeed there were two yellow queries assigned by the computer for the operator to process.

The exploration system was extremely complex and at the same time extremely simple. While the cataloging algorithms were very complicated, the management indicators were very simple. Every stellar or planetary object scanned by the exploration satellites, were, after due process, placed in under three management categories: Green, Yellow, or Red. Green objects were those in which the exploration satellites' passive scans determined the object to be either not interesting to current requirements, or that the requirements were clearly identified and no user interaction was needed for proper processing. Yellow objects were those in which the scans showed that there was some type of anomaly that was not identified in the system, and that required further process from an operator. The system learned, and those objects that in the past were considered Yellow would be in the future either Green or Red. Red were those scans that clearly identified the object within certain specified parameters that set it in for immediate attention. Like populated, colonizable, or hostile. In short any parameter entered into the system that place the object into the highest management alert.

Lieutenant Chan was now looking at two yellow management indicators which required interaction for due process. Through her mind interface, she picked up the first and the holographic image of the planet was displayed on her emitter. She was watching the image through her eyes at the same time the mind interface was providing a constant flow of data. The planet had no atmosphere, but was terrestrial in nature. A huge number of asteroid impacts dotted its surface like the irregular cavities of swiss cheese. The computer had categorized this planet in yellow due to the fact that it had detected surface Naquada deposits that were too concentrated to be naturally occurring.

She analyzed the information at hand, and determined the source to be asteroid impacts. She quickly added the information to that planet's data file. Its color changed to green, and immediately vanished from the query.

She picked up the second yellow indicator, and the planet again displayed itself in holographic form. This one was situated in Pegasus. It had a thin atmosphere composed mostly of Nitrogen and low percentages of Methane. The surface had liquid Methane rivers bellowing from underground deposits. Lakes had formed in several areas where the spouts of Methane were bigger, but mostly the rivers dried themselves as the Methane evaporated into the atmosphere to condensate in the higher altitudes and rain down on different parts of the planet to begin the process again.

Lieutenant Chan noticed that this time the anomaly was detected adjacent to one of the lakes. The readings received showed nothing abnormal at first glance, but the amount of data gathered from that location was lower than the rest. Normal particle emissions from that area were inferior to those of its surroundings. One could tell the mineral composition by detecting particle emissions, but on that area the emissions were not normal to what a surface of that type should be showing.

Ai zoomed the image to that location, but there was nothing really visible other than strange outcrops of rocks. It looked as if the surface in that area was growing into a mountain. She first thought that methane was pouring out of there and into the lake, but on closer analysis it was the other way around. There was a small river of Methane making its way into the outcrop, as if the liquid was actually filling a rock balloon. That was simply impossible. But apart from that, she was still receiving less particle emissions than she should have.

She turned to look at Nidin. "Nidin, have you ever seen something like this?"

The Asgard looked at Ai's current projection and duplicated the same image and data on his own station. After a few seconds, Nidin said, "Intriguing." He continued working and after a few moments exhaled looking away from the image and into Lieutenant Chan. "Not much we can do with the passive sensors of the satellite deployed there. Mark it as an unnatural anomaly, and let Exploration Command decide what to do next."

"OK." replied Ai. She marked the anomaly in Red and added the relevant results from her analysis. The query vanished and was probably now being received by the high echelons of Exploration Command.

**Lantea's Orbit – Pegasus Galaxy**

**TFS-10 Achilles – Flag Bridge**

**A few hours later.**

Commander Anya Levonavna, the XO of the Achilles, was seen speaking with someone at the right side of Rear Admiral Caldwell's station. She cut the transmission and turned towards Caldwell saying. "Rear Admiral."

"Yes, Commander. What is it?"

"I have a reconnaissance request from Exploration Command. They say they have detected an anomaly, and can't seem to get through to it with the passive sensors of their satellite. They'd like us to investigate."

"Any reason why?"

"They say that what they are detecting is not a natural phenomena, and that it's impossible under current knowledge of physics. They say it's artificial."

"Wraith?"

"Nothing we have seen before, Sir, and definitely nothing we have seen from them."

"Send a ship. Have them keep their distance until they can determine there is no risk to them."

"Yes, Sir. Anyone special."

"No."

"There is a Beliskner under Commander Dinira approaching Pegasus from Ida. It's returning after rotating its crew. Shall I tell it to divert?"

"OK. Tell him... or is he a she?"

"I just don't know, Sir. I'll just call him... her Commander Dinira and avoid awkward situations. I just don't know how to determine their gender. Or if they have... Eh... never mind."

Caldwell chuckled. "OK tell Commander Dinira to keep a distance until they can determine if it's safe to approach. Then have them report back. I don't want them to take unnecessary risks."

"Yes, Sir." replied Anya heading towards the com station to contact Dinira.

**Entering anomaly planet's system – Pegasus Galaxy**

**Skírnir – Beliskner class capital ship**

**17 minutes later.**

The vortex's blue tendrils were billowing into normal space. The Skirnir sailed through as if being caressed by them. The Asgard capital ship made the transition and the vortex closed. Around it there was only the emptiness of space, and in front, the small planet that was calling so much attention.

Commander Dinira initiated standard scanning activities on the entire planet while the main scanner did the same with the Anomaly. That was were Dinira's attention was centered in. The area adjacent to the methane lake looked like a protuberance. It didn't look at all natural. The interesting thing was that the now more than 7 km long outcrop of rock was growing at a constant rate. There was definitely something dampening the scanners as the passive information being received was not consistent with that of the active sensors.

The Commander increased the sensitivity and strength of the main sensor array, and what moments ago was a dampened cloud of garbled sensor readouts, now became a perfectly clear picture of what was below the outcrop. The massive protuberance was the growing mass of a Wraith Hive Ship. An intricate tunnel system was feeding the hungry fetus with a mixture of materials from the soil blended in a liquid form with the methane pouring in.

Wraith organic matter was formed easily with any kind of material as long as it was in liquid form, as the growing ship moved it through internal veins into new growth areas, but what was really needed above all was power, and at the sides of the growing ship there were several fusion reactors working at maximum power.

The underground installation was massive. It rested at one side of the growing ship. It not only harbored the reactors and feeding systems, but also several very large hangars.

Commander Dinira kept the standard Asgard composure. No fear showed, nor any weariness, but the Commander's actions were swift. The sensor system of the Skirnir linked immediately to Pegasus Fleet Command on Lantea, and all the data received by its scanners were surely being read by the Achilles and the other ships in the Fleet.

At that same time, on the surface of the planet, several big explosions could be seen. Huge amounts of rocks flew all over uncovering several entrances to the Wraith's cloning facility hangars. The organic doors opened, and the thousands of darts harbored inside started pouring from them and into the atmosphere, heading at maximum acceleration towards the intruding Asgard ship. It was clear that the Wraith had detected the powerful Asgard sensor emissions, and knew their cover had been blown, and were now acting accordingly.

Commander Dinira quickly assessed the situation. The Skirnir's sensors were showing that the hundreds of darts leaving the hangars were quickly becoming thousands. The sensors also showed that the amount still inside the hangars were far more numerous than the already more than a thousand that were outside. The course of action was clear. Not a single weapon fired from the Skirnir as the ship started moving away preparing for a jump with ample space between the darts.

The Wraith on the other hand were not going to be easily shaken, and along with the huge amount of them moving at escape velocity towards the Beliskner, there were several scout ships. These immediately opened small hyperspace windows still inside the atmosphere taking with them several fusion warhead equipped darts. The atmosphere opening destroyed many of the Wraith's fighters, but their goals were clear, and the cost insignificant.

The Skirnir activated its hyperspace window, and was about to enter when the center of the vortex flashed with an intense yellow glow. The tendrils which moments before looked like smooth weaves of light blue silk now looked like angry electrified yellow streaks of lightning.

The Wraith had barely crossed into hyperspace when they detonated their fusion warheads at the sight of the opening Asgard vortex. The range had not been close enough for the vortex to completely collapse, but was enough to completely destabilize it.

The Asgard ship reacted fast enough to avoid being destroyed by crossing the unstable vortex, but not fast enough to avoid hitting the shimmering and vibrating tendrils. The Asgard shields flashed at contact, and while they were powerful, were not strong enough to avoid being overwhelmed by the massive release of hyperspace energies. The massive glow on the shields was a synonym of the massive strain they were receiving. The Skirnir was about to clear the border of the vortex when the intense glow simply disappeared when the shields were drained to nothing. The left side of the Asgard Beliskner was torn apart when the tendrils began acting as whips and strapped themselves to the port side, completely disintegrating that section by pulling it inside the closing vortex.

Fumes of venting gases rushed outside with decompressing strength. The Skirnir was left without its port wing, and after stumbling for a moment, it regained partial functionality and stabilized itself. It immediately started increasing speed towards the opposite side of the approaching darts, but they slowly and surely closed the gap with the ailing ship.

The few point defenses available on the Beliskner started firing against the darts as soon as they entered range, but the sheer number approaching made it almost irrelevant. Without shields, the first fusion warhead equipped dart to reach the Skirnir caused enough damage in its aft section to partly shut down its propulsion system. The armor held strong, but dart after dart struck the ship with impunity and Commander Dinira, acknowledging duty, self-destructed the ship with a massive explosion.

A few seconds later, a vortex opened in at the distance. Another Beliskner jumped in still outside weapons range. The Wraith immediately altered course to intercept. They entered range, and the Beliskner opened fire with its main and secondary gun at the same time as several more vortexes opened close by. Beliskner after Beliskner jumped into normal space intensifying the fire power thrown against the darts.

The Wraith had crossed half the distance when two more vortexes opened. The TFS-2 Daedalus, and TFS-9 Ark Royal arrived with drones already streaking out of their launchers and heading to intercept. Rail guns started firing with little effect as the distance was still too far for them.

At the same time as the first darts exploded with the first arriving drones, space around the Wraith formation started to light up with multiple jump vortexes. The two Daedalus and seven Beliskners already in system were joined by the three remaining Daedalus class vessels: The Odyssey, George Hammond, and Musashi. The seven Beliskners were supplemented by another twenty five of the same class. Even so, what really inspired allied forces and shed an unknowing shadow of despair into the Wraith swarm, was the arrival of the Achilles, Acheron, Aeneas, and Aeolus, all of them Achilles class Tier 3 capital ships.

The drones launched by the five Daedalus were dwarfed by just a single Achilles class vessel. With impunity the Wraith forces were drowned in a sea of drones. Not a single dart closed the gap to detonate on an allied ship.

The Wraith had even tried to send the few remaining scout ships into hyperspace to intercept allied vessels before they could jump in, but they were all intercepted, or detonated in desperation sufficiently far enough away for Terran Federation and Asgard ships to avoid any damage.

The Skirnir was lost, but the number of darts used that were equivalent to the complement carried by a Hive ship, were not only less than a tenth of the numbers seen at the Battle of Olesia, but were also completely insufficient to manage a single Achilles. 41 ships, including 4 for of them, were just too much for the relatively small Wraith 'Garrison'.

"No more contacts, Sir." stated Commander Levonavna.

Obviously, Caldwell could see that through his mind interface connection to the battle net. But he had grown accustomed to the Achilles XO's flashy personality. He chuckled and said. "I can see that Anya."

"Just informing you, Sir."

Caldwell shook his head imperceptibly, and then said. "Reduce Flag bridge dilation field from 100 to 1, to 10 to 1. Order every Beliskner to spread through the star system. I want to know if there is any other Wraith presence here, and have them pay attention to any stargate deployed in open space."

"Aye, Sir. 10 to 1 on Flag bridge dilation field, and full star system sweep."

"Now move the remaining ships into geostationary orbit above the Wraith compound.

"Aye, Sir."

The four Achilles and five Daedalus moved into a geostationary orbit about the Wraith complex. They started scanning the massive installation at the same time as the Asgard ships began moving quickly towards different areas of the solar system. Some headed for other planetary bodies, others to the different Lagrangian points.

A few seconds passed, and Commander Levonavna addressed the Rear Admiral. "Sir, I have information from a Beliskner. They found a Stargate at the L2 Lagrange point. It was behind a small asteroid."

"Good. Have it secured, and tell them to proceed. I want even the Kuiper belt explored." replied Caldwell.

Anya made a quick look at the system's Kuiper belt data, and politely rebuffed the order. "Sir, the system's Kuiper belt is smaller than the one at Sol, but exploration command's data of this system says there are more than 23,000 objects bigger than 100 km in diameter. It will take weeks to scan them, and I'm not even considering objects smaller than 100. Scanning those will take us years."

"No, Commander. I want the Beliskners to scan the area, not every object. I want them to listen for any type of emissions. Specially reactor emissions. I'm not looking for other facilities, I just want to know if there are Wraith ships hiding there. But you have a point. There are too many objects where they can hide. Tell Exploration Command that I want a Columbus' full satellite complement scanning this system."

"Those are thousands of satellites, Sir. Do we need that many?" replied Anya.

Caldwell sighed, and looked at Anya with stern eyes. She slowly straightened herself, and Caldwell said with a not so pleased tone. "Tell them, I want this system fully scanned. Every object. Let them decide how many satellites they deploy."

"Aye, Sir." replied Anya, quickly turning around and moving to process the order.

Caldwell activated a link to the bridge. "Captain Haverson."

"Yes, Rear Admiral." replied John from the bridge.

"Prepare an assault force. I want to capture that installation. We'll be firing some drones to take out their transporter jammer emitters. As soon as they are down, we'll beam your teams in. Gather all the required data from our sensors to strike at possible self-destruct areas. Start on the reactors, and then on any other thing they could use to destroy it."

"I'll need some time to plan for the attack, Sir. At least one hour."

"You have one second." replied Caldwell with a smile on his face. "We'll be deploying a dilation field on the bridge so that you have all the time you need." The Rear Admiral turned to the Lieutenant in charge of the dilation field controls and nodded to him.

A few seconds later, Captain Haverson was linking to the Flag Bridge. The time dilation was equalized again between the two bridges, and the Captain's image appeared on the main screen. "Ready, Rear Admiral."

Caldwell just nodded, and turned to Levonavna. "Commander, take out their jammers."

"Aye, Sir."

Several drones left the Achilles heading towards the Wraith facility, but the Wraith were monitoring the situation, and responded in kind.

"Sir, sensors are showing a huge energy build up on their reactors. I... I think they are going to self-destruct." stated Anya.

The drones were just entering the atmosphere when the reactors of the Wraith cloning facility synchronized their plasma build up passed critical levels. The streaking drones kept their approach and were just a few kilometers over the huge complex when the ground erupted upwards and then collapsed leaving the normal surface scars of an underground nuclear detonation. But the crater in this case was almost 10 km in diameter.

Another set of explosions made their way to a second growing cloning facility adjacent to the first one, and in just a couple of seconds the massive Wraith complex was completely destroyed.

"So much for planning." said a frustrated Captain on the video link.

"Hmm." was all that Caldwell could answer.

**Pegasus Galaxy**

**Near galactic rim - Cloning facility**

**Wraith Queens meeting**

**February 22, 2012**

The previous meetings had been performed in deep space, with the presence of every Hive ship and their queens in close proximity. Now that there were more than 700 queens in the different cloning facilities and Hive ships, gathering them in a single place was not only unwise from a security point of view, but also extremely complicated from a logistical standpoint. The solution was to congregate several queens in a single place to allow for wiser decision making on the way the hives should be ruled. But to avoid some of the queens forcing their rule into other hives, they were going to rotate every queen one by one. This allowed the previous decisions to have continuation, but also allowed other queens to state their point of view during the melding.

The combined decision of these few queens would carry on to every hive, but still every hive would be allowed to post their queen on a rotational basis. The place selected for the gathering was one of the most remote cloning facilities. It was deep inside Wraith space and on the other side of where the Federation was deploying their Columbus, even though this fact was unknown to the Wraith. The facility provided a secure location for several queens to gather at the same time, but was also one of the few cloning centers that had a stargate inside it, which made it easier for them to move without being spotted.

The meeting started the same way as the ones before it had. Quarreling voices melded into one, and then, the same question and answer ritual started.

"A cloning facility has been lost. Is there a reason for concern? Was this an isolated event in which the humans got lucky and detected our cloning center? Or is there a reason to fear that they have found a way of detecting them?" the Mega Mind asked itself.

"The odds of humans finding one of our cloning centers is one in more than two million. Not only did they found that precise star system, but also the precise planet where our cloning facility was located. This was not a fluke. The humans knew we had a facility there. During our war with the Lanteans, they were able to find only a handful of them. The fact that the humans found one so fast is reason for concern."

"Only fusion power had been operational on those facilities, and the reactors are deployed below ground. There are also emission dissipators installed in every facility. They shouldn't have been able to detect anything."

"But the situation stands. A cloning center was located. We must assume they have ways of detecting them, and if so, then we must plan countermeasures."

"We should wait to see if that assumption is correct. If the humans are able to detect a second cloning center, then we should take any measures available to avoid that in the future."

"At least we should start preparing contingency plans. Let's have every queen devise a solution, and then we'll subject them to vote."

"Then it's agreed. We'll wait for the humans to show us if they are really able to detect our cloning facilities, and in the meantime, we'll prepare contingency plans in case the concerns are real."

The melding diffused a few seconds later, and the queens regained their individuality.

**Earth, Terran Federation**

**Atlantis city ship, Federation Capitol**

**Council chambers**

**February 24, 2012**

The lights returned to normal. The images of the battle at the Wraith's cloning facility were deeply ingrained in every councilor's mind. The loss of the Skirnir, while not a loss for the Federation, was felt by everyone, but the real concern was that the Wraith were still a clear and present danger.

"Admiral?" asked one of the councilors.

Jack turned to see the one addressing him, and just answered with a frown "Yes?"

"Eh..." replied the councilor a little confused by Jack's answer. "I think it's clear for all of us that the loss of an Asgard vessel is a situation to worry about, but on the other hand, the Wraith's facility was destroyed. Is there a reason for this meeting? We are all up to speed with the activities being performed against the Wraith. Does this new event change anything?"

Jack shook his head, and answered shrugging. "Not for me. We are still on the same railroad line."

"Eh! Sorry. It was me who requested this meeting." the voice of Daniel could be heard from Jack's right side.

Jack only frown again, and turned slowly towards Daniel, pretending to be offended at not receiving a heads up.

Daniel said in a low voice. "Sorry, Jack. I forgot to tell you." He then turned to the other councilors and said, "I have been discussing with Dr. McKay, the consequences to our Tier system in fighting the Wraith the way we are doing."

"Consequences?" asked Jack, lowering his head and piercing Daniel with his stare. "Daniel?"

"Yes. Eh... What I mean is that the Tier system was designed to protect our technology and in consequence our civilization. We all know the risks of advanced technology falling into the wrong hands, and I can't stress enough the consequence of the Wraith acquiring advanced hyper-drive technology."

"Your point?" asked Jack.

"My point is that we are using technology developed for the defense of our Tier 3 planets and space for use in offensive operations outside of their jurisdiction."

"Jurisdiction? When did they get assigned a jurisdiction?" asked Jack, a little concerned for where Daniel was heading.

"Jack. If we allow our enemies, or any hostile race to adapt to that Tier, we'll be placing our Tier 1 and 2 planets, which are at the forefront of our expansion, at risk if some of that technology falls into the wrong hands. We should be facing them with Tier 1 technology at the most."

Jack sighed and lowered his head.

"Wait a minute, don't dismiss me so fast." pleaded Daniel, clearly concerned of losing Jack's support.

"I know where you are going, Daniel, and I don't like it. I'm not going to risk people's butts in old technology when we clearly have far stronger tech to guarantee their survival. And don't harp at me with Tier this and Tier that. I already know all that mumbo jumbo. I agree with the Tier system. I saw first hand the consequences of advanced technology falling into the wrong hands. But I'm definitely not going to put people in harms way. If you are concerned about that technology falling into the wrong hands, then let's design something so that it doesn't happen. Like the Saint Marry's self destruct without destroying the ship... Eh.. I don't know, you are the brains, think of something."

Daniel just stared passively at Jack, while the rest of the councilors watched the exchange. "Will you let me finish, before you argue?"

Jack sighed again. "Go ahead."

"I'm against risking people if we have better ways of protecting them, so please understand that what I'm going to say takes that into account. We can perfectly use even Tier 5 technology once we develop it to help us battle enemies outside our space. What I mean with this is that we can still use our replication systems for production, we can still use advanced systems for transport, but what I'm stating is that we should use technology inferior to Tier 1 for combat. At least outside our space."

"We have the technology to build massive numbers of ships in Palos styled facilities. Those ships don't need to be weak either. If needed, we could build massive vessels to make up for the inferior technology. Or, we could build smaller AI controlled ships en mass."

Jack interrupted Daniel. "You want to pull our current fleet out of Pegasus?

"Yes. It's irresponsible to have that technology deployed there. The Wraith have tried to capture it once, and while the destruction of the Skirnir was not an attempt to capture it, if the wreckage had fallen under Wraith control, they could at least glimpse some technology to reverse engineer." answered Daniel.

"So, what is the purpose of having such advanced technology if we can't use it?" asked Jack.

"To protect ourselves. Every enemy storming our space will face a wall of extremely advanced and powerful vessels. If they have the strength to go deeper into our territory, they will again face even far more powerful, numerous, and advanced vessels. If we have them facing Tier 0 ships on offensive operations, they won't adapt to higher levels of technology."

"You take all the fun out of fighting, Daniel. Did you looked at the vids of the battle of Olesia when Hara entered the fray, and what happened when Carter arrived?"

"Yes, I did, and it shows that the technology we developed for the Tier 3 is sound. But I'm not talking about finishing a battle so fast, I'm talking about guaranteeing our future."

"Still, you'll take all the fun out of it."

"Not necessary, Jack. The battle of Olesia would have been far more entertaining if we had thousands of ships struggling to beat the Wraith into submission, and the crew of the Apollo and some of the Sun Tzu would have still been alive, not to mention the Asgard."

"Are we really talking about the fun of battle? Really?" asked McKay.

"Well, Jack is concerned he won't be able to eat popcorn when watching future battles. I'm just trying to appease his fears." joked Daniel. The rest of the councilors chuckled.

"Hmm." replied McKay. "If that is your concern, then I promise we'll design very good ships, albeit with the least capable technology to accomplish the task. But you won't complain about the outcome."

"OK, OK." said Jack. "Only one thing. The Wraith already know that we have those ships. They already know we have advanced hyper-drives. They will still try to adapt to fight Achilles class vessels, and will surely try to develop their own version of intergalactic hyper-drives. If you design a Tier 0 ship for offensive operations outside..." he paused and looked at Daniel. " Tier 3 Jurisdiction. Make them capable of fighting every Tier."

"What do you mean by that?" asked McKay.

"Let me rephrase it. What will happen if we were to face an enemy with a Tier 3 or superior technology. We may have hundreds of thousands of Tier 0 ships, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't get wasted as the Wraith were on Olesia by a bunch of highly advanced warships. Also, If you come in strength with millions of ships, how will you force a fight with an enemy that can simply escape because they have superior hyper-drive technology? The risk of relying on Tier 0 ships for offensive operations and from an strategic point of view is high."

"Oh. OK. I get where you are going." answered McKay. "But no. It won't be a concern, because if we face enemies with superior technology we'll just have to face them with superior designs, even if we are forced to use advanced technology. So, if an enemy arrives that we can't beat with the current Tier 0 tech, we'll have to employ higher tiers techs to face them outside our space. But you are right. The design of the Tier 0 ships must take into account fighting against extremely advanced enemies. Our real advantage would be that we can extremely mass produce them if necessary. We'll just need to build the required amount of Palos styled replication centers to accomplish that. But again, you are right. The Tier 0 ship or ships must be designed to face higher level threats so that we are not forced to deploy advanced technology outside our space."

"OK. I'd like to see those designs. But please don't come with a redesigned combat cargo module for the Columbus. I want dedicated combat vessels. Their systems must be extremely redundant so that the ship can still fight even if heavily damaged. This is a military..." he turned to look at Daniel again. "Jurisdiction. So I'll overrule you if your designs are not sound enough to face the Wraith. I'm not risking the people of Pegasus."

"Don't worry. I don't have the intention of risking them either." replied Daniel.

"So? What now?" asked Jack.

"We'll start working on a design or designs, and have prototypes produced for testing. Once the military gives the green light, we'll start mass production and deploying them to Pegasus, or wherever they are needed." answered McKay.

"So, if there are no questions, shall we vote?" asked Daniel.

* * *

**Author's notes:**

-Attention all Atlantis personnel. Those of you working under Dr. McKay in ship development, please present yourself at: Tier 0 offensive ships R&D. Those new to the project, please read the specifics at BOTF's FORUM under the topic Tier 0 offensive ships R&D. That is all.

-There is a poll opened in my profile regarding the course of action of this story. This is your last chance to vote. I'll wait only one week after posting this chapter before closing it.

-Those of you who like this story, please light a candle to your preferred Ascended being so that Griffynryder keeps betaing it. Special thanks to her. BTW, we lost Durabys. We have teams searching for him, but he was probably on board the Skirnir. Jdog1021 has joined the ranks as his replacement. Welcome to the team.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's notes:**

- The Council has voted 65 percent in favor, and the decision stands. The full extent of the Aschen-Jaffa War will be written.

- I know this chapter took very long. I was not only with writer's block, but also not very happy with how I was writing the Jaffa-Aschen war. It was becoming too repetitive for my taste. I tried to change the way I approached this chapter. Hope you like it.

- As always, especial thanks to my betas GriffynRyder and Jdog1021. Diz ztori wud bi a mez guit out dem.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve**

**Tyl'mah – Free Jaffa Nation Colony**

**May 21, 2012**

The Stargate had just shut down. Several more Tier 1 Terran Federation specialists had arrived inside the protection of Level A Hazmat suits. The situation on Tyl'mah, and, to a second degree, the entire FJN, was complicated to say the least. The Jaffa, having very little knowledge of chemical or biological warfare, mostly due to the fact that their symbionts and now Tretoning protected them of most biological or chemical exposures, were unaware that the Aschen had studied their physiology, and had prepared a special concoction for them.

It was a slow acting virus, which allowed for massive spreading before acting on its victims. After many months of fleet supply operation through the use of the Stargate, many people had passed through it, and had come in contact with the virus that had been sprayed on all probable items the Jaffa would be picking up to study. It would seem that even though the Aschen had had the intention of protecting Tyl'mah during the last battle, when they tried hard to break the Jaffa Fleet, they did have contingency plans in case the Jaffa succeeded.

The same was true for Nakgora, but the Aschen had been able to press forward, so the concoctions moved forward with them.

More than a month ago, the first symptoms started to show, but it wasn't until the first few Jaffa died of systemic organ failure that they began to understand that they were dealing with a completely different type of war. The Jaffa council had instituted a system-wide shut down of Stargate operations to avoid spreading the disease to other planets, but it was soon clear that every major colony had already been infected, including Dakara.

It was only through the combined efforts of the Terran Federation, Asgard, and the Nox that a major disaster was averted, but in the end, more than 100,000 Jaffa died before they could be administered the anti-virus.

Hazmat protected human teams of medical personnel were inoculating the worst cases first, and on Tyl'mah, the last drug shipment had arrived.

While the process of administering the vaccines would take more time on the other planets, as more than 700 million doses had to be applied. In orbit, the crews of more than 1,500 capital ships had already been cured, and were spitting venom for revenge.

During the more than six months that had passed since the last battle, Ha'tak IIIs had kept arriving at a steady rate of 5 ships per day. The fleet gathered in orbit had never been assembled in those numbers before, not even at the height of Ra's power. 1,304 Ha'tak IIIs were supplemented by 93 Ha'tak IIs and 79 standard Ha'taks. There were also a total of 312 Al'keshes left inside the hangars of some of those capital ships.

The massive fleet assembled was also something the Jaffa were unprepared to handle efficiently; during the last battle many flaws were detected in fleet management. With the numbers now assembled things were going to be even more complicated. But if fleet management was something considered a liability, the same could be said of the 12 reinforced Aschen CSV Battle Groups assembled in Nakgora.

Both forces had measured themselves through the use of scout ships, and both commanders knew that the forces arrayed against each other were more than each respective force could handle. They knew they could not guarantee victory at Nakgora for the Jaffa, or at Tyl'mah for the Aschen.

Rak'nor, while aware of this situation, was completely out of element. While he normally was a model of patience, the rage he felt toward the Aschen's cowardly biological attack was beyond what his patience could control. Then, there was the fact that the fleet had to stay put to guarantee that the vaccines worked, and that they weren't going to have a relapse in hyperspace in the middle of their approach to Nakgora. Thus, the weeks of waiting were making him boil in frustration and anger.

"Fleet Master. We have a message from the Tau'ri on the surface." stated Hai'rak

"On the main screen."

The main screen activated and a blur of activity could be seen. Several Hazmat equipped figures were moving around, and one of them turned to look at Rak'nor as soon as he saw his image appear. "Fleet Master?" the doctor asked in a passive voice.

"Yes. Are we allowed to leave, Doctor?"

The doctor on the other side of the screen nodded. "The quarantine has been lifted. The vaccines are working properly. We still have a lot of doses to administer, but everyone on the Fleet, and the majority here on Tyl'mah should be fine. You are no longer bound by medical authority, Fleet Master. The command authority vested on us by the Free Jaffa Nation Council no longer applies. You are allowed to proceed as you see fit."

"I will never forget what your people have done for all Jaffa. The Tau'ri will have a friend and ally in me to the end of my days." replied Rak'nor.

"We take our alliance seriously, Fleet Master. You can rest assure that we'll always stand at your side." stated the human doctor from the other side, while Rak'nor could barely hear a scornful snort from Hai'rak.

Rak'nor bowed to the doctor while saying. "As will we, Doctor. As we will."

The image faded away, and Rak'nor said without looking at the guards. "Guards! Leave us."

The pair of Jaffa guards left the Pel'tak, and the doors closed.

"Is there a problem, Hai'rak?" asked Rak'nor trying to control the fury building up inside him.

"Problem, Fleet Master?"

"You snorted to the Tau'ri doctor's reply."

Hai'rak took a deep breath, and answered. "I can't stand the Tau'ri, Fleet Master. They take credit for the work of others to look magnanimous, while securing their own interests, and the fact that the Aschen are human makes the Tau'ri even less trustful."

Rak'nor took a deep breath. "You think the Tau'ri are taking credit for the work of others in this situation? Do you think that even if they did, that anyone would care, especially since they are the reason that all of our people are alive? You better open your eyes Hai'rak, because your envy for them is clouding your judgment."

"Envy, Fleet Master? I feel no envy for them."

"It was because of them, that we are no longer bound to the Goa'uld, and because of them that we are free."

"With respects, Fleet Master, but we did most of the fighting."

Rak'nor laughed. "Yes, we fought the Tau'ri on the side of the Goa'uld. Then we fought ourselves to try to knock some senses into our people to stop helping the Goa'uld. But it was the Tau'ri that provided the weapons and supplies, and the knowledge and will to fight, and the Tok'ra who provided most of the intelligence to hit the weakest spots of the System Lords."

"We could have done it without their help."

"Then tell me, why did we supported the Goa'uld for thousands of years, and only when the Tau'ri came, did we rebel against them?"

"Because..." started Hai'rak, before being interrupted by Rak'nor's strong voice.

"Because we didn't have the brains to see the Goa'uld as what they truly were, because we were such fanatics that we couldn't even see the truth if explained to us a thousand times. Because of that, Hai'rak! Now, are you going to tell me that it was us who defeated the replicator threat, or the Ori?"

"They had help from the Asgard, and they took credit for that."

"It was the Asgard who brought the replicator threat to us. One of the mightiest of races couldn't defeat them, and only with the Tau'ri's help did they prevail. Do you think that the Asgard release their technology to everyone. They did so because of the debt they had with them. It's no coincidence that their most powerful vessel class is named after the Tau'ri O'Neill."

"It may be, but it was also them who brought the Ori to us."

"And them again who defeated what we couldn't."

"But it was their fault that we were almost wiped out."

"I have had long talks with Master Teal'c. He said that in the Tau'ri's long search for weapons to defeat the System Lords and replicators that they stumbled upon the communications device that was responsible for the Ori becoming aware of our existence. So you see, it was because of their search for ways to defeat the Goa'uld, which we backed, and the replicators, which the Asgard unintentionally released upon us, that the Ori tried to dominate us. The point is, that it was because of the Tau'ri that we are free, and alive."

Hai'rak just stood in silence, and Rak'nor added. "Then the Aschen tried to wipe us out with biological weapons, and they would have accomplished that if it weren't for the Tau'ri. Yet you still think they are trying to work on their own interest?"

"Yes, because they know that if the Aschen defeat us, they will be next."

"The Tau'ri could defeat the Aschen in a day!"

"Impossible!"

"They have very advanced technology, and a massive industrial capacity that dwarfs that of ours. It would be very easy for them to defeat the Aschen."

Hai'rak snorted again. "Then if they are so powerful, and our allies, why is it that we are doing the fighting?"

Rak'nor straightened himself and said with a stern face. "You are sworn to secrecy... Swear!"

Hai'rak straightened too, but did not know what to answer.

"Swear that what you hear will be kept a secret!"

"Fleet Master?"

"Now, Hai'rak!"

Hai'rak kneeled, and said. "With the honor of my people and family, I swear that what is said to me will be kept a secret even through death and torture."

"Stand."

Hai'rak stood and waited.

"We fight alone, because there are many people like you who can't stand the Tau'ri, and if they helped us militarily, we could risk a civil war."

"A civil war?"

"Yes. People like you believe that we are able to fight our wars alone, that there is no need for friends, only the need to gain honor in battle. That receiving help from others is accepting that we are unable to solve our problems by ourselves. But if not for the Tau'ri we would by now be fighting the Aschen at the core worlds."

"The Tau'ri have not helped us in fighting the Aschen."

Rak'nor chuckled. "Who do you think helped us upgrade our Ha'taks to Ha'tak III?"

Hai'rak's expression wavered in confusion. "The Tau'ri?"

"Yes, the Tau'ri. Who do you think is providing almost all of the intelligence on Aschen communications and ship movements? Don't tell me that you think that with the few Tel'taks in the front-lines we could have been able to have gathered so much intelligence on our own?"

Hai'rak's face was stupefied.

"Who do you think is helping us determine where to hit the Aschen? The diversionary attack on Nakgora that stopped the Aschen advance in Tyl'mah, and allowed us to gather enough forces to strike back was planned by them."

Hai'rak still couldn't reply.

"Now you know who helped us defeat the Aschen virus, and who is responsible for the fact that we are all still alive. But tell me Hai'rak, Do you know where the 6 Ha'tak IIIs being delivered every day are coming from? I would suppose that you don't know that it is the Tau'ri's industrial might that is doing so."

"Master, you told me it was us..."

"Yes, it is us paying for those ships, so it is a huge effort we are making to have them, but it is the Tau'ri constructing them."

Hai'rak was about to speak, when Rak'nor interrupted him. "And before you say that they are taking advantage of the situation by forcing us to buy the ships, you must know that they had prepared their fleet to strike at the Aschen on day one. The council voted against that, and asked the Tau'ri for help constructing the Ha'taks, but it was far cheaper for them to use their advanced ships in ending the situation with the Aschen, and we were now asking them to commit their entire economy in building our less advanced vessels. We were forcing them to channel their entire industrial output to our war effort."

"They said that they preferred to face the Aschen on their terms, that it would be far cheaper for them to do so that way. In the end, with our insistence, and with an offer of planets for ships to somehow pay for their entire industrial capacity, they accepted."

"So you see, Hai'rak, even if your mind has been tainted with false opinions on the Tau'ri, we are what we are because of them. They are more than just our strongest allies, they are brothers, and in many ways they are more bound in friendship to us than even many Jaffa." Rak'nor finished taking a deep breath and calming himself up, and then added. "I will not have an envious, hatred filled, and short sighted Jaffa as my ship operator." Rak'nor pointed to the door, and said. "You can leave to be reassigned to another ship. Your name will not suffer. You'll just be transferred. But if you decide to stay. You better not talk against the Tau'ri again unless it's justified, or I will make it certain that you never step foot in one of these ships again. Make your choice, and do it fast!"

Hai'rak bowed and said without any indecision in his voice. "I didn't know what you told me, Fleet Master. You know that the planet I come from is not fond of the Tau'ri, and I may have been misled, but I give you my word that I will not speak without proof again. I wish to stay. I wish to keep being your ship operator."

Rak'nor nodded with a serious stare, and replied. "Then send the order. Prepare the fleet for jump."

That ended the discussion between the two. Rak'nor was relieved that he could talk freely with Hai'rak, while Hai'rak's mind was filled with a storm of thoughts, thoughts that were definitely allying him to the Tau'ri. He had been misled by his people. He had to agree that they had been one of the last to join the rebellion, and the ones who had fought most against the Tau'ri and Free Jaffa. Also, his people had been the ones most often defeated by the Tau'ri, and the revenge sentiment for those defeats had been very high, and probably responsible for his opinion of the FJN's human allies.

He knew Rak'nor was right. If it wasn't for the Tau'ri they would never have been united. As a warrior it was hard for him to accept that, but he had gained sufficient insight knowledge to know that most of the things said of the Tau'ri by his people were not well supported, and in many cases were completely contradictory to each other. He let go of his thoughts and decided to create his own opinion on the matter, and only do so with grounded facts.

A few minutes passed, and the Jaffa forces arrayed in orbit started slowly and for the first time to assemble in standard formations. It was common for them to use a lead ship with escorts, and then pack those formations together to form bigger fleets, but there were normally no specifics as to the amount of ships. Today, they had created a formation specifically designed to fight the Aschen. A single ship stood at the front of a conical formation. There were four ships following close behind at its dorsal, ventral, port, and starboard sides, and another eight vessels completing the base of the cone in a circular formation with every ship 45 degrees from each other. At the core stood a command ship plus two escorts, the last two not only deployed to protect the command vessel, but to plug any gaps left from losses, so that the formation could maintain its effectiveness in combat.

A total of 16 ships created the core formation of the Jaffa Fleet.

The Fleet was then formed in different shapes as required by tactical considerations, but they could create a fleet-wide conical formation of standard conical formations, and could break it apart with the knowledge that they would retain combat effectiveness in the smaller formation.

The massive number of ships spread themselves wide and high. A total of 92 standard conical formations created a wall of almost 1,000 km per side of 10 by 10 formations. In unison and with the ease that comes with practice, the ships accelerated ahead, opened up their individual jump points, and ventured into hyperspace in a single swift move.

Residual radiation from hyperspace permeated the area around Tyl'mah where the fleet had jumped away, but in hyperspace, the massive wave of energy released by so many jump vortexes tearing the fabric of space, sent a chilling feeling down the spine of an Aschen Scout Captain's back. The Aschen vessel sent that information as fast as possible to command, then the slower ship quickly moved out of the path and sensor range of the fast approaching Jaffa Fleet.

Only 4 Ha'tak III remained in Tyl'mah's orbit, and while 5 per day would be arriving to supplement them in the defense of the Jaffa colony, Rak'nor was taking a relatively big risk by leaving the colony practically undefended. Relative because he knew through Terran intelligence exactly where the Aschen vessels were located, and the several SSVs the Aschen had in the way to Nakgora were no threat to him. He also knew that if the Aschen wanted to attack at the same time, he always had the speed to not be outmaneuvered.

For the Aschen there was the fact that a total of 1472 Jaffa vessels were moving directly towards Nakgora, and only if the Aschen didn't want to protect a hard won colony would they be willing to part with ships in its defense, and the amount of vessels approaching made that possibility almost nulled, so the risk for Rak'nor was highly diminished.

**Nakgora – Aschen controlled space**

**June 4, 2012**

The massive Jaffa fleet had streamed through hyperspace for more than two weeks, and was now close to the Nakgora system.

The cloaked Tel'taks were providing Rak'nor with the intel he needed. The Aschen had their battle groups gathered in orbit in their standard combat formation, some of which were clearly deployed for protection. One was positioned in low orbit protecting the main surface supply base near the Stargate, while three others were surrounding the massive gathering of containers and the main transport ship loading area.

The other eight battle groups were close to the four defensive ones, but were clearly deployed in a way that allowed them to maneuver. They were located in a higher orbit to avoid the detrimental effects of the planet's gravity well.

Hundreds of thousands of drones were scattered all over the battle groups supplementing the Fleet, but the Aschen had also taken the precaution of deploying thousands of drones at the different Lagrange points, drones that were simply powered off, but ready in short notice in case they were needed.

The entire Aschen Fleet in the Nakgora system was fully aware of the Jaffa approach, but still Rak'nor had plenty of space to choose where to jump to. He had been analyzing the sensor relay information for the past few days, but it was now thar he had to make the decision on how to proceed.

"Hai'rak."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

"Establish solar orbit. Same range as Nakgora, but ahead of its orbital trajectory. Order wall formation vectored towards the planet, and well outside enemy weapons and drone range."

"Sending the orders, Fleet Master."

The huge Jaffa Fleet was just a mass of ships approaching from hyperspace, but while the fleet had no order, the individual units were formed in the 16 ship standard conical formation. It took some time for them to gather all the standard formations into a fleet wide wall formation, but once that was over, the entire fleet jumped into normal space in unison. The sight of so many jump vortexes forming was majestic, but they were sufficiently far away from the planet to not impress the Aschen. For them, the FJN Fleet jump was only a small bluish blur in the distance.

**Aschen Command Space Vessel ...**

Admiral Rada Keraz was watching the Jaffa fleet transition on one of the main screens. He knew that on the surface of the planet where the Stargate was located the sun was shining with all intensity. That meant that most of his fleet was in the same heading, that is, towards the sun. The Jaffa had jumped nearly 90 degrees from that vector and on the orbital trajectory of Nakgora. He made a quick analysis even before the computers released theirs, and immediately gave an order to one of the stations operatives.

"Reposition the Fleet. Keep the battle-groups defending the Stargate and the orbital depot as they are, but have the rest to reposition on the same vector as the enemy."

The operator acknowledged his order by repeating it, and proceeded after receiving confirmation.

8 Aschen battle-groups kept their combat formations, but started to reposition to face the Jaffa fleet. The thousands of drones deployed outside of the fleet formations went active, but kept on station waiting for orders. The same was true for those on the Lagrangian points.

**FJN Flagship …**

"Fleet Master, the enemy is redeploying their fleet."

"I see that, Hai'rak. Get me in contact with Fleet Master Varnah."

"Yes, Fleet Master." answered Hai'rak, and immediately started working with his console. A few seconds later, Varnah appeared on the main screen.

"Rak'nor."

"Varnah, the enemy is too strong for a direct assault. We need to reduce their drone numbers, otherwise we won't be taking this colony back."

"I agree. Should we break the Fleet?"

"I think it's time to test our new combat formations. We'll hit the perimeter of their defenses from every possible vector. We should make a concentrated attack against their main line of defense, and as soon as both fleets reach fighting distance, we'll disband the fleet, and start spreading every formation around the planet striking at them everywhere."

"What about their new drones?"

"They are a concern, but only in great concentrations. We'll keep our approach speed in line with their new drones registered top speed. That way, if they launch an attack, we'll be able to pull off making them bleed for every approach."

"Are we going to keep a Fleet wide wall formation on our approach?"

"I believe it'll be the best. As soon as we disband the fleet, you'll take half of it to the other side of the planet and you'll start harassing the enemy from that area. You'll be in command of those assets until we have thin them down enough for a direct fleet attack."

"Good."

"Don't risk our ships, and make every shot count. We have a huge amount of vessels here, and if we don't mind our resources, we may be forced to leave to refuel again. We just don't know how long this will take, but with the forces the enemy has in orbit of Nakgora, I can already see this becoming a siege."

"Don't worry, I'll keep my forces in check."

"Good luck, Varnah."

"The same to you, Rak'nor."

They both nodded, and the screens on both ships went black again.

A few seconds later, the massive concentration of Jaffa ships started moving forward towards Nakgora.

On the other side, The Aschen forces were finishing their redeployment, and the number of drones arrayed in combat formation were intimidating to say the least.

It took some time for both fleets to reach firing distance, and the Jaffa started to slow down well before being in range to avoid gravitic drone interceptions, but the reality was that the majority of the drones deployed at Nakgora were of the extremely numerous first generation, and while there were many second generation drones present, they were still a very low percentage.

The Aschen drones were deployed wide, and at the same time, tight. Those in tight formations were the ones creating the funnels in front of the main battle-groups, while those deployed wide were the ones occupying a huge volume of space with relatively few drones to force the Jaffa into that area even before reaching the funnels. These created a real complication for the FJN, as the relatively small amount of drones per cubic Mega meter were not enough to justify concentrating ships to destroy them, but the amount of them in every cubic Giga meter were enough to flank the Ha'taks while they penetrated towards the Battle-groups, and they had all the intention of striking them from behind if they tried to escape.

Soon, the Jaffa penetrated this area. The drones avoided the incoming fire as best as they could, and tried to move beyond the Jaffa lines to allow the battle-groups to exert some pressure on them, while they moved from behind to hit the anvil like a hammer.

"Fleet Master, there are more than 1,000 drones that have passed through our flanks, and are still moving away. There are many more trying the same, and we are still not in range of their main forces." informed Hai'rak.

"It's a new tactic. Instead of waiting for us to drop inside their funnels, they are sending ships behind our lines to force us into a wider, but thinner funnel. Keep me informed of their numbers. Tell me when they have more than 30,000 drones in position to flank us." replied Rak'nor.

"They already have more than those numbers moving beyond our lines, Fleet Master."

"I know Hai'rak. But not in position to strike us. Tell me when that number of ships had already crosses our lines, and are in position to surround us."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

"Now, get me Varnah."

Without delay, the image of Fleet Master Varnah appeared on the main screen.

"What is it, Rak'nor."

"I believe that we'll be forced to break the fleet before we are in firing distance. The enemy drones concentrating on our flanks and back will become a threat in no time. Move your forces behind the planet and onto the other side, while I move to intercept them."

"OK. Be careful," answered Varnah, and then added with a laugh. "I won't be around to save your neck this time."

Rak'nor just smiled before the screens faded away.

The wall of ships started to disappear, and in its place, two blurs of vessels could be seen as every Jaffa standard formation started acting on their own. One of the groups was in command of Rak'nor, and it was clearly disintegrating to engage the flanking drones, while the other, in command of Varnah, was in a better formation as it was still moving through the Aschen right flank to approach the planet from its dark side.

Varnah's forces clashed with a few thousand drones that tried to block their movement, while some Aschen battle-groups moved to intercept, but failing to keep up with Varnah's forces momentum. The drones were destroyed with no losses other than a few strained shields.

On the main front, Rak'nor's forces had slowed their advanced, and were now moving away from the planet. Its different units were clearly acting on their own seeking to destroy as many drones as possible. The standard formations moved to intercept, and the results were again predictable. The Aschen older drones were not fast enough to gather enough strength, and in consequence received heavy losses, whereas Rak'nor's forces only lost 5 Ha'taks. The problem was that the little more than four thousand drones destroyed represented less than one percent of the total, and numerical factor was about to get even worse for the Jaffa.

"Fleet Master. Cloaked Tel'taks are reporting Stargate activity."

"Is it incoming or outgoing?"

"Can't say, Fleet Master. The range our Tel'taks are deployed are just enough to detect its emissions, but little more."

"Keep me informed, and send orders to reform the Fleet. We'll wait for Varnah to reach the other side to start harassing our enemy."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

On the surface of Nakgora, the Stargate was shimmering every time a gravitic drone passed through. Every three seconds, and one after the other, the new Aschen drone variant changed their course after leaving the gate, and headed straight up to reach orbit.

On the other side of the planet, Varnah was setting into a very high orbit. The Aschen forces were being repositioned to face his forces, and half of the battle-groups were shadowing the Jaffa from a lower orbit with more than a hundred thousand drones leading the way. It was at this moment, when the Jaffa detected what was happening.

"Fleet Master. I have relay from Fleet Master Varnah's forces. They are detecting drones coming up from the planet. They are receiving reinforcements through the Stargate."

"At what rate?"

Hai'rak got to work with his console and provided a report immediately. "Every three seconds."

"Hmm. At that rate they'll replace their losses very fast."

Rak'nor meditated the situation for a few second before giving an order. "Tell our forces in Tyl'mah to coordinate Stargate activity. Tell them to keep Stargate operation on the planet exclusively for resupply, but have them coordinate the closest Stargates via subspace, and have them dial in at Nakgora. I want that the moment the Nakgora Stargate shuts down for them to dial in. If they are able to connect, tell them to have a second Stargate dial in the moment the first shuts down. That way we'll be able to keep ahead of them. Don't use the maximum connection capacity, keep it aleatory."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

It took some time for the Jaffa to set a Stargate dialing operation, but that didn't mean they were successful. The Aschen were also keeping the connection aleatory, and were dialing in as fast as the Jaffa. They were not leaving things to chance, and had also taken their precautions. For the mean time, the FJN Fleet would have to cope with drone reinforcements coming from the gate. On the plus side, the Jaffa had also considered reinforcements, and a constant stream of Ha'taks were on their way to Nakgora at a rate of 5 per day.

The first day of battle was a grueling thing. Brawl after brawl between Jaffa standard formations and Aschen drones tried to tilt the hand to one side, but the number of forces deployed on system were just too much for skirmishes to alter the balance.

It allowed the Jaffa to decrease the number of Aschen drones, and to keep above their reinforcements rates, but it also cost them a lot of Ha'taks.

For the Aschen side, the lost drones were not their major concern. The fuel supplies that had plagued their past engagements were the Achilles heel of their defensive operation. The solution was to send a constant flow of reinforcements from Aschen Prime, but the distance, range and speed of their ships made that operation expensive, to say the least. Supply vessels were highly susceptible to interdiction, and low in numbers, so the solution was to completely replace Nakgora deployed ships with fresh ones. The problem was the range of their ESVs. They required to refuel in order to be able to return home after heavy combat at those ranges.

The problem was solved by the addition of a deep space supply depot were supply vessels could come and go unhampered, and military vessels could refuel without straining their combat endurance. More military ships would be used as supply ships to ferry fuel to those depots, even though it was completely inefficient.

Battle-groups had been prepared when they detected the huge Jaffa Fleet leaving Tyl'mah, and considering the 6 day traveling time, the vessels required for logistical operations, and number of Battle-groups available in Aschen Prime, almost 10 percent of the Fleet would be coming and going just to have a single Battle-group arrive on Nakgora every day.

The Aschen knew they could risk having more ships assigned to the operation. They could even devote more than 50 percent of what they had, but their logistical capacity was already strained to the limit just to keep a constant flow of single Battle-groups heading to and returning from Nakgora daily. So in the end, they at least compromised with the decision of sending a Battle-group every day.

This decision created a problem for the Jaffa. The distance to Tyl'mah was nearly three times greater than to Aschen prime, and while the Jaffa ships were a little faster, the Aschen had the ability to send reinforcements even faster. There was also the fact that the Jaffa only had the availability of 5 ships per day as reinforcements, so if they couldn't keep the logistical war in their favor, even with less resources, they would have to abort the operation, and that was something Rak'nor was not about to let happen.

The first day of fighting ended with 27 more Ha'taks and 21 Al'kesh lost, at the cost for the Aschen of more than 22,000 drones. They replaced 5 losses with new Ha'tak IIIs, but more than 28,000 drones made it through the gate, and more than 34,000 came with the new Battle-group that arrived later that day.

Things were not looking promising. Rak'nor needed to shut the gate if they were going to have any chance of defeating the Aschen. On the plus side, the massive drone operation had taken its toll on fuel supplies to the point that Admiral Keraz had reduced it considerably. Many automated weapons were kept inside their ships, and some just floated around. The majority of the lost drones had been of the newer variant which had the speed to engage the Jaffa, but the ones kept on bays or floating were of the older design.

The Aschen battle-group that was replaced by the new arrivals transferred most of its fuel to the supply depot or other units, and left all of its drones to supplement the defenses before leaving. In short, while with less fuel supplies, they ended with more drones than at the start of the day, while the Jaffa had less forces to deal with them.

**Nakgora – Contested space**

**June 5, 2012**

**FJN Flagship**

**2nd day of battle of the Nakgora Campaign.**

"I don't care what they need to do. If they require every single Stargate in the Free Jaffa Nation dialing to Nakgora to beat the Aschen, then have them do it! I need that line of reinforcements nullified. Now get me Varnah."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

The main screen activated and the tired face of Varnah appeared.

"You look tired my friend."

"You are not looking fresh either." replied Varnah.

Rak'nor chuckled. "I guess we should follow our own orders and rest like the stand down fleet."

"I guess we should. The problem is I have too much adrenalin to even consider resting. What can I do for you?"

"Our attempts at cutting the Aschen Stargate communications line have been ineffective. I'm considering other approaches, but we also have new Aschen vessels arriving, and if intelligence reports are correct, they have a constant line of ships on approach. I'd like for you to find ways to disrupt that approach, while I deal with the Stargate. If we don't stop their resupply operations, there'll be no way we'll be taking this system back."

"I'll see to it immediately. Shall I assign more forces to this?"

"Do whatever you need, but try to keep 1/3 of your fleet resting. We need our crews at 100 percent, but if you require more vessels to stop their approach, then do as you see fit."

"Good. I'll get on with it. The next batch of enemy ships is several hours from here, so I should have time to try something by then."

"See you soon, Varnah. Good luck."

Varnah nodded and the screens went blank.

"Now. The Stargate. What can we do to shut it down?"

"Ehh..." started Hai'rak.

"Just thinking out loud Hai'rak. No need to answer."

"Yes, Fleet Master, but if something occurs to me..."

"It's appreciated." Rak'nor replied with little focus as his mind was in overdrive searching for a solution. He then asked. "How many cloak capable Tel'taks do we have?"

Hai'rak looked at Rak'nor with some apprehension before answering. "We have four in system, plus three on their way here, and three more heading back to Tyl'mah. They are being replaced at a rate of 1 per week. But Fleet Master, the Aschen have proven able to detect them at closer ranges. If you plan on using them to somehow attack the Stargate, they'll be detected well before they reach it."

"Then we'll have to find a way they don't. Recall all Tel'taks heading for Tyl'mah, and bring the four in system to our hangars. I want them configured for automated operations, and rigged for explosion. The same way we did when we attacked Nakgora last time."

"Yes, Fleet Master." answered Hai'rak and immediately got to work, but after a few seconds of interaction with his systems, he turned to Rak'nor and said. "Fleet Master Varnah is requisitioning all available Tel'taks. He has also requested the Tyl'mah garrison to petition for more ships."

"I know where he is going. We are thinking the same, only he wants to do so in hyperspace."

"In hyperspace? That's suicidal."

Rak'nor chuckled. "Yes, for the Aschen. Our ships will be automated."

"That has never been tried, Fleet Master."

"Yes it has."

"Where? When?" asked Hai'rak in confusion.

"That was a Tau'ri recommendation, and have proved successful for them against the Replicators, and the Wraith."

"The Wraith?"

"It's a race that defeated the Ancients in the Pegasus Galaxy, and which the Tau'ri are now fighting. As a matter of fact, that race uses the same strategy."

"A race that defeated the Ancients? The Tau'ri are at war?"

"I'll tell you about that later. But in short, the war the Tau'ri and the Asgard are currently fighting in Pegasus would most likely escalate into something never seen before. The battles we are fighting will look like child's play compared to those. They have already wiped out more than a thousand ships bigger than Ha'taks in a single battle, and the Wraith possesses ships in excess of 10 km."

"How can the Tau'ri defeat a race that defeated the Ancients?"

"I said they were at war, not that they have defeated them. The Tau'ri have shown us battle footage of the War with the Ancients, and the number of ships they fought are unimaginable. They were not defeated because their enemy was more advanced, but because they were far far far more numerous. The Tau'ri currently have control of Pegasus, but after studying the war with the Ancients, they know the Wraith are building up their forces for a counter attack, and the Tau'ri are devoting all of their available resources into exploring that Galaxy, and you know how large galaxies can be. I don't envy their position, and they are still helping us."

Hai'rak just nodded in awe.

Rak'nor sighed and addressed Hai'rak again. "Tell Varnah, I need the Tel'taks to take down the Stargate. Tell him to use one Tel'tak for the job, but to later use Al'kesh bombers. He probably won't need cloaking ability after the first attack. The Aschen are smart, and they probably won't keep their ships together after what will happen today."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

Hai'rak made as ordered, and a few seconds later the main screen activated.

"Rak'nor."

"Varnah."

"So we are thinking on the same lines?"

Rak'nor chuckled. "I guess the Tau'ri made an impression with the videos they showed us."

Varnah chuckled back. "I guess they did. But there aren't enough cloak Tel'taks to do the job. The majority of them were deployed on the front-lines. The rest are just transport ships, and we don't have the capability to replicate that technology. With the scientific teams we have available, it will take a lot of time for them to be able to reverse engineer it. We are stuck with what we have, and they are not many. Especially here. If you want me to stop their reinforcements. I'll need them. But I know taking down the Stargate is a priority. What do we do?"

"Take one Tel'tak, and use it to destroy the approaching Aschen reinforcements. I don't think you'll be able to do the same twice, as they will certainly have their ships sufficiently spaced out to avoid that. Later you can use uncloaked Tel'taks or Al'keshes to do the same on individual units."

"Their approach formations are sufficiently spaced out for us to be unable to destroy them with just one Tel'tak. I would need more for this attack."

"True, but not when they are preparing for transition. Wait until they are close enough to Nakgora to make the attack."

"If we fail, we'll be unable to try again as they'll be close enough to make the transition. Are we willing to risk that?"

"Yes. Let's hope we are at least able to take their command vessel. But taking down the Stargate is the priority, and I will need some of your forces to pull that off."

"What do you need?"

"We'll attack on the other side of the planet in relation to the Stargate and its orbital defensive perimeter. We'll clear a path for several Tel'taks to approach at low altitude from different vectors from the other side of the planet. If we are successful we'll only need one Tel'tak as the rest will be able to pull back. If they are detected and intercepted, then we can detonate one to not only clear the area of drones coming out of the Stargate, but the residual radiation should mask the other approaching Tel'taks to finish the job."

"We are going to destroy the Stargate? I thought you wanted to knock it down or something. If we take this system, we won't have a Stargate to resupply our forces."

"We won't take this system if that Stargate is in operation, and if we just knock it down, they can have it up and running in no time. If we retake Nakgora, we'll resupply via Tel'taks, or even use Ha'taks if necessary. We'll later bring a Stargate from one of the planets we are selling to the Tau'ri, or ask them for one. I'm sure they'll be able to spare a few, if they don't already have the ability to produce them. But the Nakgora Stargate will certainly detonate if a Tel'tak impacts it and explodes while it's active. The explosion will cause severe damage to the ecosystem in that area, but we need to take this planet no matter what if we want a free way to the Aschen core worlds."

Varnah reluctantly nodded. "OK. What do you want me to do?"

"We need to hit the entire orbital perimeter. We need to pin them down. We'll move some of the fleet from behind the planet in a way that shows that they are heading to reinforce elements on the other side. We'll have the Tel'taks with them. One after the other they'll start dropping into the atmosphere. They'll have to drop slowly. The heat of reentry will be easily detected. We need to avoid that, even if they are more vulnerable while coasting through the defensive drones in that area. Let's hope their sensors are not as advanced as their capital ships. If they are, then the other Tel'taks will have to move fast even if they are detected at reentry. They'll have to hide below water for some time to avoid detection once they are in."

Varnah nodded. "We'll use three?"

"Yes. You'll keep one to intercept their Fleet. Now... The question is: Do we attack them in force as a Fleet?, or do we just pressure them with individual formation on the entire front?"

"I'd prefer to use individual formations. They are big enough to handle strong opposition, and small enough to easily disengage to avoid losses. The Aschen have a lot of forces here. We need to conserve our strength."

Rak'nor nodded. "I agree. Let's prepare for the attack."

Some hours passed before the Tel'taks were ready, but once they were, the forces that were harassing the Aschen pulled back to gather strength with the rest of the fleet. The huge mass of Jaffa vessels, which were dwarfed by the number of Aschen drones present in orbit, started to consolidate into several small fleets to then drop on the planet as individual formations to strike and pin the Aschen in their orbital positions.

The amount of golden plasma pulses that were dropping towards the planet, and into Aschen capital ships and drones, looked like a summer storm rain. Hundreds of thousands of bolts were being fired every second. The amount of energy heading towards their enemy was simply enormous, but the range was too high for them to be effective. Several drones were destroyed, but the capital ships just maneuvered to avoid them. The few bolts that were able to impact just fizzled on their shields.

The great majority of the energy pulses passed through, dissipating into the upper atmosphere, but the bigger bolts of the main cannons, even with highly decreased strength, still struck the surface of the planet. Many just evaporated water in the oceans, some just glassed some sand in the deserts, but a few struck forests or jungles creating fires. At first they were negligible, but as the minutes of the attack passed, and the range decreased, the bolts started to cause more and more damage to the ecosystem.

Thousands of smoke columns billowed into the atmosphere. Habitable planets were normally huge, and while the damage of the attack was negligible to them, the surface marks were clearly seen from orbit.

The Aschen drones pressed forward. Ha'taks kept their fire intensity. Many of their shots were directed towards the Stargate, but the range was too high, and the mass of Aschen capital ships and drones protecting that sector made any attempt of an orbital bombardment ineffective.

The two forces collided with fierce determination. Ha'taks avoided most of the incoming drones, but many were still destroyed at the hands of the gravitic equipped ones.

A sector of the assault was deliberately kept understrength, and when the Aschen pressed the attack on that area, the Jaffa sent reinforcements to supplement it. For the Aschen this looked as if the Jaffa were just moving ships to reinforce that sector, and the fact they were doing so from the other side of the planet, made it look even more convincing. For the Jaffa, it was only a stratagem. It was the means of delivering the cloaked Tel'taks from a sector in which the advanced sensors of the Aschen capital ships couldn't detect them.

The small vessels moved under-cloak and with the cover of the Huge Ha'tak's super structures to avoid detection in open space, but as soon as the planet came in between of the main Aschen forces, they detached and coasted towards the planet. The thousands of drones in that area moved to intercept, trying to keep the approaching Jaffa forces from joining with their already heavily engaged counterparts.

The two Jaffa groups trying to join made the faked move of retreating. Aschen drones pressed forward to try and cripple the fleeing ships, but that only gave breathing room for the cloaked Tel'taks to enter the atmosphere at a very low and undetectable speed.

The transit time from one side of the planet to the other would take nearly a day for the Tel'taks to perform. They couldn't increase their speed as the atmospheric shock-waves generated could be more easily detected, so they were forced to move at subsonic speeds.

Fighting for such prolonged periods definitely worked against the Jaffa, as the Aschen reinforcements were more than enough to handle the losses while theirs were not. The FJN forces started to fight in withdrawal, and after several minutes had retreated to a safe distance. The loss of 36 Ha'taks for only 15,361 drones was high, but at least they had accomplished their deployment operation, and it was only a matter of time to see it to fruition.

**Varnah's Ha'tak III**

**Three hours later …**

"They are in sensor range, Fleet Master." said the ship operator.

"Keep the sensors aimed at them at maximum power, and have the Tel'tak ride that wave from below. Let's hope some high intensity emissions are able to help mask the cloaking system for the Tel'tak to make a closer approach." replied Varnah.

"Yes, Fleet Master." said the ship operator, bowing.

Varnah's Ha'tak was keeping station in the center of the Nakgora system, but in hyperspace. The ship was illuminating the approaching Aschen ships with its sensors at maximum power, while the cloaked Tel'tak was making its approach at maximum speed below the sensor emission wave. The purpose of that tactic was to fill Aschen sensor systems with a lot of radiation to make them less sensitive, and summing that to hyperspace radiation, it should make them less able to detect the approaching Tel'tak.

Varnah didn't want the Aschen to break formation because of his presence, so he started to slowly move away from the Aschen Fleet as to allow them a safe transition. He just wanted to look like a picket. A vessel deployed by the Jaffa to warn them of the approaching enemy vessels, and while subspace sensors could easily work from normal space, they were more effective in hyperspace, at least for the purpose of detecting vessels in that realm.

At the same time as Varnah's Ha'tak started moving away, the Tel'tak was moving at maximum speed towards the Aschen, while they were starting to slow and close ranks for a united transition.

With all of the effort taken to avoid detection, the Tel'tak was nevertheless detected, but the FJN managed to keep the element of surprise. The Aschen commander was slow to determine the menace as ships in hyperspace were unable to fire beyond their hyperspace drive field. Only special weapons, like Ancient drones, Replicator blocks, and any weapon that could keep the field active around them were able to cause any damage in hyperspace. But energy weapons were unable to operate beyond the very very short distance of the hyperspace field perimeter.

What really caught the attention of the Command Captain of the Aschen approaching forces, was the determination and speed of the approaching Tel'tak, but by the time his order started to be processed, and the Aschen ships started to accelerate and break formation, the Tel'tak was already on them.

The explosion was massive. Varnah's Ha'tak, being far away from it, was forced to accelerate to avoid damage. There was nothing that remained of the Aschen forces, but the combat systems signals that were emitted before being destroyed. 1 Command Space Vessel, 27 Escort Space Vessels, 9 Scout Space Vessels, and its complement of thousands of drones were destroyed, and only 1 Tel'tak had been necessary to accomplish that. It was the best kill to death ratio the Jaffa had ever been able to accomplish against the Aschen.

On board the Flagship of the Aschen forces arrayed in orbit, the worried face of the normally unemotional Admiral Keraz said it all. They were in trouble.

The second day of combat finished with a few more Ha'taks destroyed at the hands of several thousand self-destructing drones. It was a complete stalemate, and only the Stargate approaching Tel'taks had any chance of altering that balance.

**Nakgora – Contested space**

**June 6, 2012**

**Stargate**

**3rd day of battle of the Nakgora Campaign.**

The Stargate shut down only to activate again. It had been a constant for the last few days, only that this time, it wasn't gravitic drones coming out of it, but wave after wave of Jaffa warriors.

The constant dialing from different planets had finally paid off, and had beaten the Aschen in dialing in. The first warriors out were welcomed by the automated defenses installed by the Aschen. It was a massacre, but slowly the defenses were taken out. More than a hundred Jaffa warriors lay dead in the surrounding area, but those were not going to be the last. The gravitic drones that had previously come out of the gate were turning around and heading back for it.

They hovered several kilometers away of the Stargate, and started firing their low powered pulse cannons. They were low powered against shielded warships, but were overkill against ground troops. The Jaffa warriors were gone very fast, and the area was left ablaze.

More warriors kept coming, and it was only because of Rak'nor's orders that more loss of lives was spared. No more Jaffa were allowed to move in, and the area close to the Stargate was left still in control of the Aschen. The Jaffa had at least been able to stop their drone reinforcements, at least for the time being.

The Approaching Tel'taks stopped their advance seeking cover in different locations. All kept their cloaks on, but still they submerged in any body of water they could find. Two did so in lakes, while one did the same in a deep river. They waited for the time they could be needed again.

**Hyperspace**

**A few hours later …**

The approaching Aschen Battle-group was completely spread-out. They didn't want to suffer the same fate as the previous vessels, but approaching towards them at maximum speed was a strong formation of FJN Al'kesh bombers. The Jaffa had rigged them for auto-run, and an enhanced self-destruct. Every Aschen warship had a Jaffa counterpart heading towards it, while many more remained stationed in hyperspace close to Nakgora in case someone got through.

The first explosion between an Al'kesh and a Scout lit up hyperspace. The two vessels ceased to exist, but the explosion was so strong that two more Al'kesh that were relatively close were destroyed in the process. It was clear that measuring the energy release of an explosion in hyperspace was not an exact science, at least for the Jaffa.

For the Aschen, the first exchange had cost them a scout and its crew, and while the Jaffa automated bombers were approaching fast, the Aschen were also reacting fast. What could have been a massacre ended up being a dispersion. Two more scouts were destroyed before they started jumping away into interstellar space.

The Jaffa were not able to destroy the approaching Aschen Battle-group, but were at least able to rout them into normal space. The Aschen ships were completely dispersed as individual units. The distance they were traveling between each other in hyperspace meant that a jump to normal space would position each ship light years away from each other, and in the best of cases, at least several million kilometers. Their formation was completely broken apart, and there was no Captain willing to jump back without proper reconnaissance. They had been effectively pinned down.

The FJN Al'keshes kept patrolling hyperspace like hungry predators, but it was clear to Varnah that more needed to be done.

"Prepare two standard formations, and deploy them in hyperspace." ordered Varnah.

"Yes, Fleet Master." answered his ship operator.

"Next time have the Al'kesh sensors link to our hyperspace deployed Ha'taks to determine their jump locations, specifically the ones from their Command vessels. We'll take them down in normal space."

"Yes, Fleet Master."

The day ended up being as the days before. A constant harassing campaign against the Aschen orbital forces, and while no side was able to break the stalemate, the Jaffa had at least been able to stop the reinforcements.

**Nakgora – Contested space**

**June 8, 2012**

**Stargate**

**5th day of battle of the Nakgora Campaign.**

The constant harassing of Aschen forces had continued the day before. There had been minor changes in each side's tactics, but mostly it was all the same.

The Aschen approaching Nakgora had formed a perimeter several light years from the system, and were unwilling to challenge the Al'keshes protecting it. On the planet's orbit, the Aschen had kept a strong opposition, but their fuel supplies were a matter of concern. They had started increasing the volume of space protected by their drones. The density of them in the outer perimeter was very low, but it at least forced the Jaffa fleet into bypassing them to reach Aschen forces in orbit, this at the same time, allowed the older and slower drones to fall onto them to inflict some damage.

The Jaffa had to deploy forces to face the small amount of drones in the outer perimeter to avoid the above. This allowed the Aschen to pin the Jaffa fighting a small number of drones, and to conserve fuel for the numerous drones protecting the inner areas of the defensive perimeter.

The real change happened in the Stargate. The Jaffa were beaten in the dialing race, and lost control of it. Gravitic drones started to pour out of it again.

Rak'nor didn't wait for a change of luck, and immediately ordered the cloaked Tel'taks into engaging the Stargate. The three units available had found shelter in nearby lakes and in a deep river, and one of them started a slow approach to its target.

The cloaked vessel crossed the distance, and struck the Stargate at the same time as a Gravitic drone was making its way out of it. The explosion was amplified when the active gate detonated. The area inside a 100 kilometer diameter circle was completely destroyed. The Aschen supply dump was no more, and several Gravitic drones that were inside the blast zone were torn apart by the atmospheric shock-waves.

The gate destruction ended the main Aschen method of reinforcement, and took a thorn out of Rak'nor's side. If the Aschen were unable to break the siege, then it was only a matter of time for them to be forced to retreat.

**Nakgora – Contested space**

**June 9, 2012**

**Aschen Flagship**

**6th day of battle of the Nakgora Campaign.**

For Admiral Rada Keraz it was only a matter of adapting to circumstances. He had lost the Stargate, and hyperspace was interdicted. He could do nothing about the gate, but he could still contest hyperspace, and that was what he had been planning and preparing to do since the Jaffa started combat in that medium. He had no ship capable of combat in hyperspace, but he had the resources to create a hybrid solution.

His scouts were useless in combat, so he used the same tactic the Jaffa were employing. He rigged those ships for automated operations. They weren't small bombers or transports like the Al'keshes and Tel'taks, and operating them without a crew was close to impossible for long periods, but he only needed a few seconds, and for that time frame, the rigging was more than enough. His real problem was the fact that their self-destruct was not based on the Naquada explosions the Jaffa used, but on conventional charges or fusion reactor overcharges. This would create a very small explosion in hyperspace that wouldn't be able to harm a thing. His solution was to fly the Scouts with drones inside its hyperspace field, and detonate them close to their targets.

He wanted the Jaffa to feel the strain, so he organized his forces to give them a strong initial blow. His subspace sensors had detected two Jaffa Ha'tak formations of 16 ships each, both stationed in hyperspace. He didn't know the Jaffa had those ships ready to intercept any ship jumping to normal space to avoid the Al'keshes, and because none of his reinforcements had gotten close enough to try to run the blocked, they hadn't been used, so for him, they just presented some juicy targets.

Apart from the Ha'taks, there were a total of 283 Al'keshes patrolling hyperspace, and they were not flying in any formations, so intercepting them would be a very difficult task, but if the Jaffa wanted to fight in hyperspace he was going to give them hell.

He had 140 Scouts in system. 108 were part of the 12 battle-groups present, but 32 were those that had been deployed independently to scout adjacent star systems.

Two of those SSVs (Scout Space Vessels) entered hyperspace with a strong flight of the older drones in formation. Each of the vessels selected one of the Jaffa Ha'tak formations as a target, and detonated their drone warheads a few seconds after entering hyperspace. 32 Ha'taks were destroyed in flash.

Immediately after, he started sending his scouts one at a time to try and destroy as many Al'kesh as were possible to open the way for reinforcements to arrive. The Jaffa on the other hand were not going to present the Aschen with more juicy targets, and for every SSV entering hyperspace, an Al'kesh was assigned to destroy it. 138 SSVs and the same number of Al'keshes were destroyed in the most important engagement of the day.

15 other SSVs coming from the ships trying to break the blockade did the same, and 15 other Al'keshes suffered the same fate.

The battle in hyperspace, while performed by individual units at a time, had still been very intense. The Jaffa had suffered a lot of losses, but they still had 128 Al'keshes protecting the approaches. For the Aschen, who were a very practical people, the attack had not only served them to cause the Jaffa serious losses, and to thin the hyperspace defenses to try to run the blockade, but most importantly had served to transfer the remaining fuel of the SSVs to the other ships before being sent to attack in hyperspace, and that had given them enough resources to keep the drones in operation for several more days of combat.

**Nakgora – Contested space**

**June 12, 2012**

**Jaffa Flagship**

**9th day of battle of the Nakgora Campaign.**

The Jaffa had pressed the attack on the Aschen orbital forces for the last few days. The intention was not to break the Aschen Fleet in an all out assault as that would have meant their demise. They just didn't have enough forces to exert a defeat, but they did force the Aschen into moving their drones to protect their capital ships and their orbital perimeter, and that had forced them to spend more precious fuel.

Losses in normal space for both sides had been low, but losses in hyperspace had placed the Jaffa at their limit. Admiral Rada Keraz had kept the scouts arriving with the reinforcements, attacking the Jaffa Al'keshes, but as his fuel supplies dwindled, he started draining fuel from his ESVs (Escort Space Vessels) and into its drones to keep them operational. He then started using those drained escorts into attacking the Jaffa hyperspace siege.

This tactic had decreased the number of escorts in the Aschen Fleet at Nakgora from 340 to 275, but had kept the Aschen fuel condition on the green. On the Jaffa side, there was some decision making to do as they only had 36 Al'keshes left to keep the blockade, and they were becoming too few to manage that.

On the Jaffa Flagship, Varnah had arrived via ring transporter a few minutes ago to decide how to proceed. The information they were about to discuss was considered top secret so that not even ship operators were allowed to hear, and that had forced a direct meeting between the two Fleet Masters.

"We no longer have enough Al'keshes to maintain the blockade. We need to make a decision. We either retreat, or we start using Ha'taks to do the same. What do we do?" asked Rak'nor.

"I believe it would be a waste of resources to use Ha'taks in that way." answered Varnah.

"I have seen the numbers, Varnah. We are losing a Ha'tak for every 400 to 500 drones we destroy. Its become a constant now. A single Aschen escort is able to carry more drones than we are able to destroy with a Ha'tak. So one of their escorts is worth more than one of our motherships in terms of kill ratios. Now, the problem is that if they break the blockade, their reinforcements will put an end to our attempt at recapturing Nakgora. We can't defeat their current forces in orbit without losing the entire Fleet. We need to drain their resources, but if their reinforcements arrive, we'll be at square one. So, again, we either retreat, or we use Ha'taks to keep the blockade strong." replied Rak'nor.

"What about the Tau'ri's intelligence? If they are right, then the Aschen have close to 12,000 capital ships over Aschen prime. If they want, they can bring them in and end this stalemate in a heartbeat. Using our Ha'taks in that way will only reduce our ability to face them. We can keep this stalemate at Tyl'mah, but the distance between Nakgora and Aschen Prime means we can be mauled by their main Fleet any time if we stay here. I say we pull back, reinforce our Fleet at Tyl'mah, and wait for the Tel'taks to arrive at the front-lines for use in hyperspace combat. We still have enough of them in the core worlds to make any Aschen hyperspace approach a bloody proposition."

Rak'nor shrugged. "The Tau'ri also said that the Aschen logistics capability is very limited. They have grown in numbers, but they are still not enough to manage a full assault. They are using capital ships to resupply ships coming this way. Their bottleneck are the Escort Vessels, they are very limited in range, but they are also their most numerous warship. They can't threaten us without them. As you said, we are at a stalemate, but if we pull back, they can reinforce Nakgora with thousands of ships and we'll need to wait for a couple of years to have the numbers to turn them around. I would prefer to stay. We can use the older Ha'taks, and hope the Aschen's supply situation in Nakgora breaks before we do. If they do first, then we can shift motherships into attacking their colonies to force them to pull back while we keep reinforcing Nakgora. At least that is what the Tau'ri recommend."

Varnah sighed, and a few seconds passed before he answered. "It's a big bet, but it's either that or a probable several-year-long-cold-war massing ships and protecting our borders."

"Yes, and the Aschen could use those years to field a replacement for their escort vessel. A ship designed for long range combat that would severely hamper our abilities to contain them. We need to force them to develop defensive measures for our advance, and not the other way around. We need to keep the pressure on them. We can't let them breathe."

"I agree. We'll just have to manage crew transfers. As losses mount, the crew removed from the automated Ha'taks will start to cramp our other vessels, and losses to Aschen drone fighting will start being felt deeply."

Rak'nor nodded. "We'll use a single Ha'tak as a transfer vessel. As soon as it's full, we'll send it back to Tyl'mah. We may have to use just a couple of them for transport duties, but that way we won't threaten idle crews in combat."

"That's a good option. So, we stay?"

"The council supports our decision, but it has to be unanimous. If there is disagreement, then a defensive stance would be given more weight, in this case, a retreat to Tyl'mah. So, If you agree, then we stay."

"You have my support." answered Varnah, but at seeing Rak'nor's face and his intention of speaking, he added. "Not only because you have my loyalty, but because I consider your course of action a better long term strategy. It may put us in a difficult situation in the short term, but if we pull this off, we'll have a better standing in the future. I agree to stay."

"Then it's settled. We stay to fight, and in a few days we'll know if it was the correct decision. Tau'ri intelligence reports that the Aschen are starting to send a greater number of Scout Vessels to Nakgora. It's clear they want to use their less capable ship in hyperspace combat. We'll order our units in hyperspace to avoid engaging them. We'll try to focus only on their Escort and Command vessels. If they want to reinforce their fleet in orbit with scouts, they are welcome to do it. They are useless. We'll self-destruct our Al'keshes and Ha'taks only against their Escorts and Command ships." said Rak'nor.

"If we do that, they could use their scouts to resupply their forces in orbit." replied Varnah.

"I agree, and they may prolong the battle for a few days, but those ships are very small to carry the supplies required to keep half a million drones in operation, and I strongly believe that using our Ha'taks against their scouts would be a complete waste of resources. We'll only face them if it's strictly necessary. Only if their main capital ships, or cargo vessels are hiding behind them. but only then, and while trying to out maneuver them to reach the vessels behind."

The meeting ended almost an hour later, and the orders for automated deployment were dispatched to the 18 Ha'taks and 63 Ha'taks II remaining. Crews began moving to a Ha'tak III for their transfer to Tyl'mah. The Ha'taks III would be the last to be used for hyperspace combat, and only if the Ha'taks and Ha'taks II were not sufficient.

**Nakgora – Contested space**

**June 16, 2012**

**Jaffa Flagship**

**13th day of battle of the Nakgora Campaign.**

The days passed, and the amount of Aschen Escort Vessels in Nakgora had dropped to 244, but there were still less than half a million drones, and they had been kept in the green concerning their fuel supplies. The number of escorts had been reduced at a steady rate of almost 30 vessels per day, and with the current number of ships remaining, the Aschen could only keep fuel at safe levels for eight more days before being forced to either retreat or break the blockade.

On the Jaffa side, things had been the same. It was the daily routine of attacking Aschen units in orbit to force them to use fuel, and the constant struggle that had become hyperspace self-destruct fighting. There were no more Al'keshes or Ha'taks available, and only 36 Ha'tak II were left to blockade the hyperspace approaches. These last units were already being supplemented by Ha'tak III, of which 1,216 were still available, the majority deployed in normal space harassing the Aschen forces in orbit.

The routine was about to be broken, as Nakgora was being approached by more than a hundred Aschen Vessels. The constant flow of ships had stopped trying to break the blockade for the last few days, and had concentrated what forces they had available to launch an all out attack. 3 Battle-groups comprised each of 1 CSVs, 27 ESVs, and 9 SSVs were reinforced by 31 SSVs and 7 transports. The formation was spread-out, but the front was composed mostly by the 58 SSVs available.

The FJN Hyperspace forces moved relentlessly to face the approaching enemy forces. Ships that were about to approach SSV detonation range entered normal space to allow the Aschen scouts to keep moving forward. Some other vessels changed trajectory to force the SSVs into intercepting them, which in turn, allowed other vessels to strike from the flanks. When the distance shortened, the units that had jumped to normal space reentered hyperspace to smite at the juicier targets.

The slow Aschen transports were the first to be destroyed by the self-destructing Motherships, but the 81 ESVs soon followed the same fate. The amount of Ha'tak IIs and IIIs that where heading towards the unprotected Aschen forces quickly turned the tide of the attack. The CSVs that were the only crewed vessels, immediately turned around and headed back towards friendly space, while the SSVs tried unsuccessfully to intercept Jaffa vessels. Only a few ships were able to accomplish their task, and soon, with their controlling CSVs moving away, they were forced to do the same.

The day ended badly for both sides. Losses had been heavy, but the Jaffa had at least been able to repel the Aschen reinforcing operation.

**Nakgora – Contested space**

**June 25, 2012**

**Jaffa Flagship**

**22nd day of battle of the Nakgora Campaign.**

Rak'nor was watching the main screen. The Aschen had only 12 Command Space Vessels remaining in orbit. Every single Escort and Scout had transfered their fuel supplies to the CSVs and drones, and had then engaged the Jaffa forces in hyperspace. Now, there were none of them remaining, and Rak'nor knew there was nowhere else the Aschen could get fuel to supply its drones, unless they wanted to use CSVs in automated attacks.

Drone operations had been greatly reduced, but still, more than 350,000 remained challenging the FJN assault.

He watched part of his fleet fighting the Aschen forces in orbit as has been the norm for the last 22 days, when suddenly, things changed. Sensors detected Aschen ships jumping into hyperspace in the general location where their forces had been forced to retreat at their first attempt to break the blockade. The ESVs and CSVs joined forces, and jumped back to normal space still far away from Nakgora. Half an hour later, which the Aschen probably used to transfer crew from the ESVs into the CSVs, the ships entered hyperspace again, and headed towards the Jaffa Fleet.

Rak'nor's forces in hyperspace reacted immediately, and the automated Ha'taks moved to intercept. It was at that time that the CSVs stationed in orbit, including the Aschen Flagship, jumped to hyperspace leaving every drone behind.

The approaching ESVs accelerated to force the Jaffa into engaging them, and to give a window of retreat for the Aschen Command vessels. They succeeded. Ha'tak after Ha'tak were destroyed by the ESVs, and the Command Vessels move away from Nakgora safely.

The smile on Rak'nor's face was growing before Hai'rak spoke to him.

"Transmission received from the Aschen on all frequencies. They are using our language."

Rak'nor frowned and said. "Show me."

A simple computer generated message played. "_Jaffa Fleet, you have ten minutes to pull your forces engaging our orbital defenses. Beyond that period any attempt at attack, will see our forces dropping on the planet and detonating every single fusion warhead. It is your decision if the entire ecosystem is destroyed._"

Hai'rak's jaw almost dropped to the floor. He turned to see Rak'nor who still couldn't believe his luck. After 22 days of combat, he had inflicted a logistical victory, and had forced the Aschen to retreat. He knew there were more drones deployed than the Aschen could carry on their ships, and while many would have to be sacrificed in a retreat, the Aschen had left every single one, but not with the intention of sacrificing them. They had left them to guarantee that neither side could get a hold of the colony. The Aschen drones didn't have the fuel to fight, so if the Jaffa forced a fight to make them consume their last reserves of fuel, they were just going to send every single one of them crashing to the ground detonating their fusion warheads.

If the Jaffa continued the fight, they were not going to recapture an ecologically sound planet, but a completely devastated one. Rak'nor gave the order. "Pull our forces back to higher orbit, and get me in contact with Varnah."

Hai'rak nodded, and a few seconds later the face of Fleet Master Varnah appeared on the main screen.

"Have you listened to the message?" asked Rak'nor.

"Yes, just finished." answered Varnah.

"This is not a decision we can make. This is something the Council has to agree upon, but in the mean time, I want to keep the Aschen as far away from here as possible. I'll keep half of the Fleet in orbit and protecting hyperspace for any counter attack, but I want you to take the rest and follow the Aschen as they pull back. Press them and divert forces to attack their colonies. Watch out for hyperspace interceptions, as they will certainly start using this new tactic to drive us off. Use our speed advantage to flank them, but I want them on the defensive. We can't let them mount a counter attack."

"I agree. I'll send some forces with automated Ha'taks with them, and I'll prepare the rest of my ships to start a harassing campaign."

"Good. In the mean time, I'll get in contact with the Council to see how they want to proceed with the drones assembled in orbit. We don't have control of Nakgora, but we forced the Aschen to retreat and we broke their beach head into our space. This has been a strategic victory. Let's keep it that way. Proceed with your attacks. I'll make sure this system remains in our hands no matter what. Good luck, Varnah, and good hunting."

Varnah nodded. "I'll give the Aschen enough fear to force them to stay at their systems. You won't have to worry about them." Varnah bowed in respect and his image disappeared from the main screen.

Rak'nor stood for a moment thinking of his friend, and then turned to look at the planet outside the main window. There were hundreds of thousands of drones, but not a single could be seen with the naked eye. The burden of the decision ahead of him would decide the fate of the beautiful spheric jewel floating in front of him. Every living creature on and in the planet stood in the balance, and even if the Council gave the go ahead, he wasn't sure he would be able to carry that responsibility on his shoulders. He was thankful that that decision would not bother him at the moment, so he turned around and left the Pel'tak to gather for a well deserved rest.


End file.
